Solving ‘a huge problem.’ Why there’s free, fresh food in west Charlotte now
A west Charlotte neighborhood has found a way to bring free fresh produce and other groceries that need refrigeration to neighbors in an area surrounded by food deserts. It’s a small, but growing trend in the Charlotte region, similar to free food pantries and little free libraries.
The Freedom Fridge was installed this month at 2916 Parkway Ave. in the Enderly Park neighborhood.
It’s regularly filled with dairy products like milk and yogurt, fruits and vegetables, as well as other items like sandwiches. The community refrigerator is a similar concept to a free food pantry box where people can take what they want, and leave what they can.
“So far, very little has been wasted,” said QC Family Tree co-director Shamaiye Haynes, who regularly checks the fridge, takes photos of items and send texts to neighbors. “ “It allows people access to fresh food and veggies every day, all day,”
QC Family Tree is a nonprofit that helps “cultivate equity.”
Solving problems with food in Charlotte
Back in 2020, QC Family Tree installed a food pantry box just around the corner on Tuckaseegee Road, across the street from the Bette Rae Thomas Recreation Center. But in the summer’s heat, for example, foods like fresh fruits and vegetables spoiled.
“This Freedom Fridge has solved a huge problem for us and our neighbors,” Haynes said.
The dry pantry has been moved and is encased next to the Kings Bottle stainless steel, three-door outdoor refrigerator, replacing the former white spindle railing on the front porch of the blue house on Parkway Avenue. QC Family Tree purchased the 1933 one-story home in 2018, Mecklenburg County property records show.
The $4,000 community refrigerator was donated by Carolina Farm Trust, Haynes said. The nonprofit’s mission is to “strengthen equitable local food systems in the Carolinas,” according to its Facebook page. Volunteers and donors like the American Heart Association also helped pay for the material and installation of the cabinet, as well as removing a large tree and electrical work.
Food donations come from individuals, groups and restaurants.
Community refrigerators in the Carolinas
The QC Family Tree project had been in the works for about a year. The idea mirrors a Freedom Fridge in Greensboro. It’s part of a small, but growing trend nationally and in the region.
Among the first community refrigerators to appear in Charlotte was by the DaVillage Pop Up Shop, a local nonprofit that hosts free pop-up markets for free food, clothing and other items to people in need in Charlotte.
A small colorful community refrigerator with the word “Da Village” and sunflower painted on the door sits in front of the vegan restaurant Oh My Soul at 3046 N. Davidson St. The NoDa neighborhood fridge, founded by Shamelle Jackson, is regularly stocked with drinks and fresh foods.
She found inspiration from a Brooklyn, New York, community fridge project. She started a similar concept in 2020 in Charlotte with the first refrigerator at North College and E. 7th St., but it is no longer there.
There are other community refrigerators in the region, too.
The Rock Hill Community Fridge sits in front of The Mercantile store at 153 E. White St. in downtown. That outdoor fridge has a window door to see what’s inside. The idea is to reduce food waste and help people facing hardship to have easy access to fresh, nutritious food, Brittany Kelly, owner of The Mercantile said on the business website.
The Clover Community Fridge at The Bridge is a full-size side-by-side freezer and refrigerator off Guinn Street in Clover, S.C. It sits next to a free food pantry of several large wooden shelves in the parking lot behind The Bridge Community Church at 114 Kings Mountain St.
Both South Carolina community refrigerators have Facebook pages with regular updates showing food donations.
Why the community fridge matters
Community refrigerators and pantries help fill a need in west Charlotte where there are few traditional grocery stores despite steep competition in other parts of the city that generated nearly $9.5 billion last year.
The Charlotte region has over 720 grocery stores, with expansions by supermarket chains like Sprouts Farmers Market, Lowes Foods and Publix.
However, west Charlotte — made up of predominantly Black neighborhoods — is considered a food desert. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food deserts in urban areas as low-income census tracts — or neighborhoods — where at least 500 people, or 33% of the population, live more than a mile from a grocery store.
Not all of Enderly Park falls under the definition of a food desert because it has a German-discount grocer Aldi, Salisbury-based Food Lion and Compare Foods. But surrounding neighborhoods are such deserts, like Lakewood, Westerly Hills and Thomasboro-Hoskins.
About 3 miles south of QC Family Tree, the West Boulevard Coalition has taken matters into its own hands after being without a traditional supermarket for over 30 years. Three Sisters Market will be Charlotte’s first cooperative grocery store and is expected to open next year.
Haynes would like to see more Freedom Fridges in her neighborhood, and elsewhere.
It’s not a solution for food deserts, Haynes said but does help solve immediate hunger needs and supplements people’s food budgets.
“Our intent is not to fully address a food desert,” she said, “but it is to help people identify ways in which we can be a part of the distribution, and we can do it with human dignity.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2024 at 6:00 AM.