Your Friendly Neighborhood Grocer: How the Free Food Fridge Movement Combats Food Insecurity in Urban Food Deserts

Keywords: food justice
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 5

Abstract

The free food fridge movement (FFFM), a community-driven grassroots food program, is emerging as a new form of mutual aid and a response to the neoliberal approach to conventional food banks and food charities (deSouza, 2019). First emerging in the United States in 2020, free food fridge movements are located in traditionally referred to food deserts, defined as areas where physical and economic barriers restrict access to healthy food (Dieterle, 2015). The FFMs, therefore, reimagine a future free of those restrictions, moving beyond stereotypes of food insecurity. While not disparaging of neighborhood resources (bodegas, delis, dollar stores), nor framing users as victims, these movements offer opportunities by embracing community partnerships with local farms and businesses and employing a simple, yet powerful rhetorical shift in their messaging. Furthermore, these movements are feeding the food insecure with healthy, fresh food options while simultaneously addressing the economic, cultural, and physical inequities inherent with food access (McEntee (2008,2009), Shaw (2006). To answer the question of how free food movements address food inequality and food justice, this paper uses a comparative phenomenological analysis (digital content analysis, ethnography) of three movements in New York (Albany, Brooklyn, and Buffalo). This interdisciplinary project introduces new research on the community food programs and extends theorizing on transformative food justice programs.