If you drive down Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood, from Sunset Blvd toward the 101 Freeway, you’ll pass the Virgil bar, a couple of Salvadorian eateries, maybe a few taco trucks, and right before you hit the Vermont Red Line Metro stop, you’ll see Santa Monica Grocery. You might notice a refrigerator placed on the sidewalk in front of the carnicería and tiendita. The fridge is painted a dark blue, adorned with black and gold lettering “Free Food or Comida Gratis.” There’s a baby blue pantry on its right side, where a bouquet of french baguettes wrapped in wax paper pokes out of the top shelf.
This East Hollywood fridge is part of Los Angeles Community Fridges (LACF): a network of 23 currently active fridges across the LA area, from South Central to Long Beach, from Van Nuys to Uptown Whittier. It started in 2020 in response to the heightened need for mutual aid efforts during the pandemic. To this date, 21 fridges have closed for a variety of reasons, like volunteer burnout, city citations, and lack of resources and donations.
Writer and comedian Andrea More has been one of the main organizers of the East Hollywood fridge and is just one of many Angelenos who flocked to LACF in 2020, “I was involved from day one,” she said.