Remembering ultimate ‘community refrigerator’

Any community fridge initiative is worth supporting, but first a little context: The Chico community had a big and wellstocked fridge. It was called the Jesus Center. Coincidentally, the now bulldozed soup kitchen was located in a former ice house, so it’s cute to think of it as, literally, a giant community fridge. Not so cute: we destroyed this asset, which the community supported financially, but sadly did not support when its primary mission—no-barrier access to food—was under assault by a crafty contingent of the propertied class.

But, to the question of guerilla food distribution: Whether the city blocks an effort to legitimize food pantries, it’s important to keep up the work of provisioning people. Find a way. I say this not only because it’s charitable, but because in doing so you’ll be subverting a dangerous trend toward denying increasing numbers of poor people the basic human right to autonomy — the denial that occurs in any society drifting toward authoritarianism.

A person should be FREE TO CHOOSE to live in a congregate shelter—or any other alternative to housing. But it’s dangerous for the fabric of a democracy when we use the science of coercion, as taught by Robert Marbut and practiced in Chico, to deny people’s freedom by stripping the cityscape of resources needed for survival. Restricting access to food, water, clothing, toilets, etc., is a long standing means of engineering the disappearance of the poor. Generosity is kindness in action; in this case, it’s also justice in action.

— Patrick Newman, Chico