The Covid-19 pandemic magnified inequities embedded in our communities — food insecurity and malnutrition among the most critical. Ensuring all citizens have adequate and equitable access to reliable sources of fresh food is a necessity.

Globally, community fridges have introduced a new way to tackle both issues of food insecurity and food waste. When placed in appropriate locations, a community fridge can become an identifiable tool and asset for the community.

We Create teams worked to design an accessible, user-friendly, self-sustainable and secure micro food-hub, supported by Better Block SGF staff and volunteers who help replenish and maintain the fridge. Final designs were evaluated according to the following criteria:

Research

Innovation

Functionality

Aesthetics

The community fridge was placed near the street entrance to Urban Roots Farm in the West Central Neighborhood to help support food security and healthy nutrition. The seed of the project came into fruition in April 2021 by a few well-intended, self-motivated community members who had perceived the need to launch the community fridge initiative in Springfield. The first community fridge was built in partnership with community members, Urban Roots Farm, the West Central Neighborhood Alliance and Drury University’s American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) chapter.