Community fridge opened during pandemic still providing sustenance

Food can be taken and shared any time, seven days a week.

A group fighting food insecurity in Macon founded during the COVID-19 pandemic hopes its efforts will keep proving fruitful, even now that COVID is no longer a focal point for local communities.

The Macon Community Fridge, co-founded by Hannah Matthews and Leonard Oxley in 2020, is a community led project that relies on the sustained commitment of its neighbors to keep it going — something it’s been able to do well past the pandemic.

Matthews said at the time, community fridges started popping up around the country to fill in resource gaps exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We learned more from Free99Fridge in Atlanta and decided to get one started in Macon to address food insecurity in our community,” she said. Free99Fridge is a similar initiative in Atlanta.

Food can be taken and shared any time, seven days a week at the Macon Community Fridge. Neighbors keep it clean and throw out any expired or unlabeled food.

Food shared must be have labels showing the ingredients and date made. The community fridge does not accept alcohol or raw meat, according to Matthews.

Matthews said while Macon does have many helpful resources, there are barriers stemming from when they can be accessed, showing identification and more.

“We hope that Macon Community Fridge can bring some dignity back to food access, as we trust our neighbors to take what they need at any time,” she said. “The feedback we have gotten from our neighbors is overwhelmingly positive.”

Matthews said some unhoused neighbors call it the “magic fridge.” The one criticism is that it’s frequently empty, but Matthews wants to

get more neighbors involved to fix that.

Matthews said volunteers often hold food-making parties to stock the fridge and also receive donations through apps.

“We love a sandwich making party. These events are one of our favorite ways to stock the fridge, and we see a lot of dif

rent groups hosting them, including Wesleyan, Mercer and local churches,” she said. “I celebrated my birthday with a sandwich making party this year.”

Matthews said to regularly stock the fridge, it would cost around $100 a week — and while that usually doesn’t happen, she said the group is lucky to have a great social media following that helps fill in the

gaps for things like upcoming events or grocery stock up. Some local businesses and organizations help provide for the fridge too.

Matthews said Centenary Community Ministries followed in Macon Community Fridge’s footsteps and started its own after seeing the success and positive community feedback.

Matthews went on to say it’s important to understand the psychology of food insecurity and how important it is to take care of neighbors and community.

think for many of us it is easy to turn our heads away from our unhoused neighbors. But realistically, most of us are one or two paychecks away from being in that same position,” she said.

“We have much more in common with our unhoused neighbors than with millionaires. We have to take care of one another.”

For those who like the idea of the community fridge but don’t know how to help, Matthews said there are several options, including making meals, dropping off groceries, volunteering to do fridge wellness checks, supporting grocery trips financially, and more.

The Macon Community Fridge is at 887 Forsyth St.

The Macon Community Fridge is stocked with meals and waters. The initiative, which began in 2020 due to COVID-19, relies on the sustained commitment of its neighbors to keep it going.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MACON COMMUNITY FRIDGE At the height of the pandemic, the Macon Community Fridge co-founders, Leonard Oxley (left) and Hannah Matthews, bring groceries to stock the fridge.