Ending food insecurity will take more than community fridges

In June, Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, on the South Side of Chicago, installed a community fridge just outside its front doors. Anyone can leave food in the fridge or take food from it. Local restaurants, stores, and residents donate meals and fresh produce, and volunteers help keep the fridge clean. The congregation is working in partnership with the Love Fridge, a Chicago mutual aid group founded last year to help prevent food waste and reduce food insecurity.

Food insecurity, defined by ongoing uncertainty about where one’s next meal will come from, rose dramatically in the United States during the pandemic. Black and Latino families were disproportionately impacted. In February 2020, 20.1 million Americans did not have enough to eat; that number rose to 29.7 million in December 2020 before falling to 20.3 million in June 2021. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which expands automatically based on eligibility, increased from 36.9 million Americans in February 2020 to 42.4 million in March 2021.

Food insecurity is a long-standing problem with a complex matrix of causes. Income and wealth disparities leave many Americans at the edge of poverty with no safety net. For decades, food prices have risen steadily while wages have stagnated. In cities especially, Black and Latino neighborhoods have long suffered from disinvestment, which leads to food deserts—the lack of local access to affordable, healthful food.