At the end of each school day, local school cafeteria manager, Janet Bailey, 62, was appalled by the amount of food she saw being thrown into the dumpster. Working at Cecil Elementary School, she wondered, “If the kids are not eating it, why not pack that food up?”
Bailey is a longtime resident of West Baltimore and knew that her neighbors and local community members often faced challenges in securing nutritious food. After handing out fresh fruit and vegetables to people in need during the pandemic, she installed a food giveaway fridge outside her home in Mosher. A couple of years later, Bailey joined The Bmore Community Fridge Network, which offers fresh produce and meals to individuals struggling with food insecurity.
In Baltimore City, food insecurity is a pervasive issue. Tens of thousands of people live in food deserts and urban locales where residents struggle to access healthy food. Supermarkets can be far from people’s homes and, without a vehicle, grocery options are more limited. Corner stores carry snacks, liquor, and some essentials, but purchasing healthy food often poses insurmountable challenges.
“There is no supermarket in this area. We suffer from food insecurities all around here. There’s bars, there’s places to get snacks, but the healthy food items and even meats, there’s no place to go,” Bailey said.
The fridge network is rapidly expanding, hoping to meet the needs of Baltimore’s food-insecure residents.
In Reservoir Hill, Jennifer West, the executive director and farm manager at Whitelock Community Farm, and Aaron Pitsenberger, the board president of the farm, oversee the production of 1,500 to 3,000 pounds of food each year, according to West, with the help of local volunteers.
The farm hosted “Community Refrigerator Build Day” in late June.
“We are proud to be part of that amazing network here at Whitelock Community Farm,” Pitsenberger, 35, said. “This fridge and pantry was built by the community during a volunteer day, and so the community had a direct hand in making this possible.”
West, 39, added that “The closest grocery store is Shoppers supermarket, which is over a mile away in a community where folks have mobility issues, transportation issues, and also health equity and health instability due to the lack of access to fresh foods.”
‘It just takes effort’
The Bmore Community Fridge Network was founded by Marci Yankelov, Julie Kichline, Lila Perilloux and Miller in February. “We are four women trying to feed the city,” Miller, 41, said.
Miller attributed the dire food landscape to the continued legacy and practice of redlining Black neighborhoods and a high cost of living. “I call it food apartheid because these food deserts didn’t happen naturally. A desert happens naturally. Apartheid is on purpose, and so redlining designed the system like this,” Miller, 41, said.
The Bmore Community Fridge Network was founded by Marci Yankelov, Julie Kichline, Lila Perilloux and Miller in February. “We are four women trying to feed the city,” Miller said.
The network doesn’t rely on grants or widespread fundraising. In fact, the group has no formalized budget or data collection. “I could be out there moving pounds and pounds of food, or I could be in an office aggregating that data,” she added.
Yankelov is a real estate agent whose family is native to Baltimore. “I grew up in a family where food didn’t get wasted. You know, if there’s a tomato that has a bad spot, you cut it off and use it.”
Adding that the refrigerators aren’t intended to be a person’s primary source of food, Yankelov said “It’s supposed to sort of fill in between going to pantries.”
She worries that food insecurity will worsen when changes are made to the food assistance program, SNAP, a feature of the Trump administration’s signature budget. “We’re just going to keep pushing ahead,” Yankelov said.
Food fridges across the city are stocked by individuals who pay for the food themselves or coordinate food pickups from businesses and distributors.
The project is made up of Facebook groups, an Instagram, and a Google Maps page regularly updated with fridge and pantry information. Refrigerators are always running and unlocked, and volunteers stock them on their own time. There are no rules for who can take food and how much they’re allowed.
“All of this is free, it just takes effort,” Miller said. “It doesn’t cost money to make a Google map. It doesn’t cost money on Facebook.”
The city’s analysis
The Baltimore City Food Environment Brief published last year measures food insecurity in the city with the Healthy Food Accessibility Index. Food deserts — also called “healthy food priority areas” (HFPAs) by the city and “food apartheid” by activists and organizers — are generally defined as areas where access to healthy and nutritious food is limited.
The city’s brief labels HFPAs under four criteria:
- Healthy Food Availability Index score for all food stores is low
- The median household income is at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four
- Over 30% of the household has no vehicle availability
- If the closest supermarket is more than a quarter of a mile away
Baltimore HFPAs, fridges, and supermarkets and food pantries
Tip: Center the map on a specific location by clicking on the magnifying glass at the bottom of the map, typing an address and pressing “Enter.”
Baltimore’s 2024 Food Environment Brief defines a Healthy Food Priority Area as an area where availability of staple and healthful foods is low, the median household income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level, over 30% of households don’t have a vehicle and the closest supermarket is over a quarter mile away.
Note: Map reflects supermarket openings and closings since the priority areas were identified.
Sources: Baltimore City Department of Planning, Open Baltimore, news reports, grocery store websites
According to the study, 16.2% of residents, or 94,472 people in Baltimore City, live in an HFPA. That number is down from 146,077 people in 2018, but challenges remain.
Black residents and the city’s oldest and youngest populations disproportionately live in these areas. Approximately 84% of residents who live in HFPAs are Black, and 10% are white. Additionally, 22,079 Baltimore children live in HFPAs.
Fridge stocking volunteers tackle food inaccessibility daily
The fridge network addresses challenges posed by HFPAs with the help of generous volunteers like Bailey and Jim Metz, 65. Metz lives in Harford County and makes packing meals and stocking fridges his daily routine. Metz, who is retired, quit smoking and stopped going out for lunch. “I have lots of money to spend on other people now,” he said.
With a newly stocked fridge, Bailey offered advice on how to improve her neighborhood in West Baltimore. “The community is improving. We just gotta come together as one.”
Baltimore Sun Senior Data Editor Steve Earley contributed to this article.
Have a news tip? Contact Gabriella Fine at gfine@baltsun.com.
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