Evanston Community Fridges

MISSION STATEMENT

Evanston Community Fridges is a community-run mutual aid network to expand community care through access to free food. We organize fridges hosted within our city to feed one another. We believe in radical community care, and that one neighbor’s hunger is another neighbor’s responsibility.

At the community fridges, everyone is welcome to take what they need and leave what they can without judgment. We reject surveillance and policing at the community fridges. We don’t watch each other; we look after each other. The community fridges belong to all of us.

In sharing food with each other, we work to meet the immediate needs of our neighbors while building the community we want to live in: abundant, connected, and life affirming for all.

Take what you need, leave what you can.

Donate

THE FRIDGES

CNE Fridge

1335 Dodge Ave
Hosted by CNE

Sunrise Fridge

620 Madison St
Hosted by
Reba Place Church

Soul Fridge

1601 Payne St
Hosted by
Soul & Smoke

HOW IT WORKS

One of the beautiful parts of the fridges is that anyone can support the fridges at anytime. There are no strict rules about how to benefit or contribute.

Anyone is welcome to shop, clean, organize, or refill the fridges at any time.
The fridges are open 24/7 and you are welcome to visit them whenever it is convenient for you.

Please refer to the guidelines below if dropping off food -- they are also posted at each fridge!

Statement on Non Surveillance

At the community fridges, everyone is welcome to take what they need and leave what they can without judgment. We are committed to breaking down the false divide between “needy” and “giver.” We reject surveillance and policing at the community fridges.

Mutual aid only works when we trust one another. The community fridges belong to all of us.

We don’t watch each other; we look after each other.

In line with our values, we do not support any form of policing or monitoring of how people use the fridges. These fridges exist to affirm community care, dignity, and abundance — not control. By rejecting surveillance and embracing trust, we move closer to building the life-affirming, community-based systems that abolition calls us to create.