COMMUNITY PROFILE CREDIT: PAULA BARD nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the big mining strikes, workers pooled resources and offered medical care, women’s health care, strike pay, food, and sick leave. Community fridges have continued to take off in New York and New Jersey. Los Angeles and Oakland both have Community Fridge networks which are expanding to Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Miami, and Seattle. Fridge Yourself (freedge.org) encourages everyone to start a community fridge in their neighborhoods. They track the community fridge movement expanding worldwide: UK, Canada, Quebec, Ontario, Brazil, France, Germany, Argentina, Singapore, China, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Denmark, and India. Community fridges are spreading rapidly across the U.S. and the world, as poverty and food scarcity, currently exacerbated by the pandemic, roll through communities. In true mutual aid fashion, neighbors are getting involved because they see a need, and, in the most fundamental and essential ways, they are reaching out to the vulnerable, stepping up to sustain each other. Citizens are seeing each other through this crisis. ■ CREDIT: PAULA BARD CREDIT: PAULA BARD February 2021 DENVER VOICE 9
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