Austin – Hundreds of people depend on the six free society refrigerators ATX Free FridgeA mutual aid project aims to fight food insecurity and food waste, has been placed around Austin. Now, one of them will close permanently due to the issues that the organizers ultimately said of a lack of support.
The second street refrigerator, which is located in 1710 End St, Austin, TX 78702, was the second refrigerator that ATX Free Fridge opened. the Instagram mutual aid It was a post on September 30, announcing that the refrigerator was closed permanently, and the last day of operations will be October 10.
“For five years, this refrigerator offered to care and nutrition for neighbors, but we were unable to continue this without fixed societal support.” He said after the explanatory name. “Despite our efforts, the garbage accumulated and asked us to leave. This is a reminder that every refrigerator belongs to the entire society and that each of us has a role in preserving the refrigerators clean and stored.”
Stephanie Castleyi, one of about four organizers with a free ATX refrigerator, said they started obtaining problems about the societal care of the refrigerator.
“Therefore, garbage tends to accumulate. Shelves have been taken several times. We are having difficulty getting enough people who participate regularly, enough to prevent these problems from accumulating.” “As you know, the box leads to food, then food leads to creatures. I mean, it is just a type of snowball quickly.”
ATX Free Fridge was founded in 2020 during the Covid-19s. Another organization, Kelly Stewart, said it started with a few people who were demobilized from working in the food industry during the epidemic, but they still want to feed people, inspired by other free -free organizations throughout the country and began one in Austin.
“It seems simple,” she said. “People can serve food and take it whenever they want. There is no need to register, and every site is very busy. They see between 100 to 200 people every day, in every site.”
Castleberry and Stewart emphasized the need for community support for projects such as ATX Free Fridge.
Stewart said: “We see that successful mutual aid projects that have really strong community support, and unfortunately, these projects did not get enough support,” Stewart said. “There are only four of us, such as the management organizers of the ATX free refrigerator, so there is no way we can be able to keep up with hundreds and hundreds of people who go to every site every day. So we really need the help of society to keep these refrigerators stored and clean.”
The organizers also shed light on some other refrigerator sites and praised one efforts in particular, using it as an example of how members of society advance forward and help in the initiative.
Castleberry said that Brentwood Social House has already communicated with ATX Free Fridge about hosting a community refrigerator in the cafe.
“They care about it. Every day, they go to verify this, see what is going on with it, and clean it,” she said, referring to the Café and near society.
“This site is stored regularly, and it is regularly clean,” Stewart added. “It always looks good and feels satisfied because this neighborhood has truly taken a collective ownership of it.”
Stewart said the other organizational challenge was a sense of permission that she believed people feel they needed before helping in the refrigerator.
“We really need members of society to take more ownership,” she said. “You know, they do not necessarily have to pass through us. I think this is really common we face, that people are waiting for us to say,” Yes, you can, or, “do this thing exactly,” when we really need more people who do something, anything, as you know. “
Those who ask weight can add another conflict that the organizers face: ability. Castleberry said that since the main organizers of the mutual aid project are also working in jobs and returning their lives, it may sometimes be difficult to keep up with everything, and their ability can vary depending on what is going on.
“This is the other thing that differs from us in exchange for non -profit organizations … We are just regular people who make our daily functions, and this is what we do in free time,” said Castleyi.
Castleberry said that ATX Free Fridge is trying to expand its organizational leadership, “which really includes everyone.” She also admitted that you could feel fear to see where to start, but one of the options appears on the project community meetings, which occurs every six weeks or so.
The project’s Instagram post, Castleberry and Stewart, enlarge the need for group care, noting that the lack of group care is a root, which led to the closure of the second street refrigerator.
“If you believe in what these refrigerators provide, we need to appear. Food comes down when you can spend a moment in the rank. Without collective care, this can happen to other sites as well.” “If you want to honor the years of service that this site provided to our community, please put it on your calendar to drop some food and/or clean any refrigerator site 💛”
ATX Free Fridge has already published signs in the second street refrigerator about its closure and said they wanted to add another free refrigerator in the area at the end, but they have not identified any sites for one yet. Stewart said that one of them would open in the Montopolis region in the next few months.
Any person interested in helping support the community can descend food anywhere and at any time. People can also register for cleaning refrigerators, or communicate with ATX Free Fridge on [email protected] for more information about other forms of sharing.