Start a Free Fridge

Placing a working refrigerator in your front yard, stocked with vegetables, fruits and other perishables for the hungry, sounds like the work of an angel. Yet at last count, 23 such angels walk among us, their driveways humming with the sound of compressors.

They are participants in Free Fridge PDX, a grassroots concept that embodies hyperlocal mutual aid to struggling people nearby.

The concept is simple: Find a fridge, hook it up to a power source, put it in your front yard, and stock it with free food. They’re like mini food pantries sprouting all over the city, without the lines, the commute, or the stigma sometimes attached to visiting them.

The rules of normal fridges apply to your free fridge: Don’t let food rot. Don’t let the milk curdle. Keep it tidy. Make sure the door is fully closed. Don’t let that mystery Tupperware sit on the back shelf for months because you’re too scared to open it.

A slightly less daunting option: setting up a free pantry. In this case, an extension cord isn’t necessary and the food lasts longer because it’s not perishable. (Well, hopefully.) Granola bars and peanut butter jars are great options, as are packaged snacks like nuts and chips.

That’s the idea, anyway.

On a recent visit to a free pantry in Colonel Summers Park in inner Southeast Portland, the pickings were slim: tampons and three cans of beans (pinto and green beans). There was also a sharps container for safe needle disposal. Another free pantry location in the Sunnyside neighborhood was empty, though recent pictures would suggest the pantry is normally stocked with hygiene products like toothbrushes and toothpaste, hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

There are other variations on free fridges, too. You can create a free wardrobe by setting up clothing racks with free T-shirts, pants, warm coats for winter, shoes and socks. Just make sure they’re protected from the rain by building a shelter over them.

Free Fridge PDX offers a blueprint for anyone wanting to start a free fridge or pantry, and once you’ve created one, the organization will add it to an interactive map so it’s easy for people to find.

Judging by the map, free fridges and pantries are most needed in Southwest and Northwest Portland and east of Interstate 205.

Find instructions, the map of free fridges and pantries, and a support network at sites.google.com/view/pdx-free-fridge.

What else you can do:

Adopt your block

For some, cleaning is an act of love. That’s the concept of Adopt One Block, a group in Oregon and Washington that provides free cleaning supplies to people who commit to tidying their block once a week for a year. It’s a low-stakes commitment that shouldn’t take more than an hour or two per week. You pick up cigarette butts and trash, sweep the sidewalks of debris, weed, and get rid of any other blemishes on the block.

And you don’t have to front the cost of cleaning supplies, either: Adopt One Block drops off cleaning supplies such as trash bags, sharps containers for needles, and plastic gloves at your convenience. adoptoneblock.org

Set up a warm-and-fuzzy table

Remember when the person in front of you would buy you a coffee at Starbucks, and then when you got to the payment window, you felt so touched (and a dash of peer pressure) that you paid for the person behind you?

That’s the idea behind Wildly Kind, a Portland nonprofit that encourages people to offer small gifts to their neighbors. Everyone loves a compliment and a flower, and Wildly Kind helps you do that in a more structured, non-creepy way. The nonprofit recently founded by Kayla Nestor helps people set up booths and tables in public spaces to give away small gifts, everything from verbal or written affirmations, to local artisan products, to flowers. The organization also partners with local businesses to create self-care kits for teachers, health care workers, and those who work in the mental health arena. wildlykind.org

Volunteer with Solve

The nonprofit Solve specializes in trash. Specifically, getting it off of our beaches, sidewalks, streets, wetlands and business entrances. All you have to do is pick a cleanup event on Solve’s website, show up with closed-toe shoes at the start time, and start picking up trash with the supplies Solve provides you.

It’s gratifying, you’ll get to know some of your fellow Portlanders, and you’ll make your neighborhood—and city—a better place. solveoregon.org

Make little offerings

Plant cuttings, a dog bowl filled with fresh water, fresh sprigs of rosemary, free plums from the fragrant plum tree. There’s nothing better than walking by a neighbor’s home and being offered free things, free of charge and free of guilt. Plus: We also love a good yard sale, especially when there’s music.

See the rest of Willamette Week’s Good Citizen Guide Here!