Malden Community Fridges open their doors to the hungry
By Kami Nguyen Dotted around the city of Malden are a handful of large painted boxes that house community refrigerators — stocked to the brim with free food for anyone in the community to take as they need. The Community Fridge initiative, founded by City Councilor at Large Craig Spadafora, and Ward 8 City Councilor Jadeane Sica, was started in March 2021 with a single spare fridge from Spadafora’s basement. Since then, the program has grown to four fridges at various locations around the city, and two more waiting to be installed. No city funds are used to sustain this program. Aside from a one-time grant, the entire initiative is community run. Local businesses donate fridges and electricity, the Malden Teen Enrichment Center decorates their protective boxes, existing organizations provide food and volunteers restock them every week. Much of the food comes from an organization in Arlington called Food Link, that saves unused food from local grocery stores. “Councilor Spadafora and I teamed up with them after learning about that particular organization when we volunteered […]
