COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — A community refrigerator in southeast Colorado Springs is helping families put meals on the table, free of charge, any time of day.
The Southeast Food Coalition opened the community fridge in the Hillside neighborhood in 2024, giving neighbors free and anonymous access to food 24 hours a day.
"The Food Coalition, we have a food access group that works on improving food access for neighbors who might need help supplementing their groceries," said Southeast Food Coalition President Jessie Henderson-Delgado.
Henderson-Delgado said the southeast part of Colorado Springs is known as a food desert, with fewer grocery stores relative to the population the area serves. For residents in the Hillside neighborhood without a car, the nearest grocery store can be nearly five miles away.
The fridge was designed to fill gaps left by traditional food pantries, which have limited hours and are not available in every neighborhood.
"Colorado Springs has a wonderful pantry network, but pantries closed and they can't stay open, you know, 24/7, not every day of the week, not every neighborhood has one," said Henderson-Delgado.
Henderson-Delgado said the fridge was built with working families, parents and older residents in mind.
"Even if you're working a job and you work until 6 p.m. and the pantry's closed, or if you have kids and you can't wait in line in the pantry with 3 little kids, or if you're older and you can't wait in line in the pantry, we wanted everyone to still have... access... to food," said Henderson-Delgado.
She said the resource is growing in popularity.
"Everybody loves it. It's getting used more and more now. We have a couple of pantries who help stock this several times a week," said Henderson-Delgado.
For Henderson-Delgado, the work is also personal.
"On a personal level,... I was a hungry young single mom, and I know what it's like to not be able to feed your family. I would sacrifice my own food to have my kids eat better food when I was a young mom," she said.
Community partners including Solid Rock Food Pantry, Care and Share and Food to Power help keep the fridge stocked.
"Because we're able to farm some of our produce and we're able to get local produce from the farmers that they donate to us, we add that little bit of... nutritional aspect to your diet," said Food to Power's Natalia Avila.
Petra Vargas, who lives on post at Fort Carson, is among the families who use the fridge. As a mother in a family of six, she said grocery costs add up quickly.
"It's been hard, even with two incomes," said Vargas.
Vargas said she typically shops at Sam's Club to buy in bulk, but her grocery bill still runs about $300 and only lasts two weeks.
"It's just hard now to, you know, find things like this, so it means a lot," said Vargas.
The Southeast Food Coalition is currently looking for volunteers to help clean and maintain the fridge, as well as food partners to help support the effort. For more information, click here.
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