building community in these times: a practical guide - filling the fridges
a step-by-step implementation guide to care for community while building community
if this is your first time exploring this building community in these times series within my substack, check out the first building community in these times post for an overview of the intentions behind this series.
filling the fridges: atx free fridge project
this guide will include steps to plan a group event to fill community pantries or fridges. in this case, the recipe shared is for options that have refrigeration but can be modified with less perishable recipes or by handing food out to people directly.
what is the atx free fridge project (from their website): they’re a community fridge / community pantry that is “100% free & open to the community 24/7. there are no sign ups or permission required. the project exists to combat food insecurity and food waste in austin by partnering with local residents & businesses to provide access to community fridges in neighborhoods throughout the city. operating on the principles of mutual aid, where community members are invited to give what you can and take what you need, promoting Solidarity Not Charity!”
why this matters: 13.5% of households experience food insecurity according to the USDA (although my guess is that the number is actually higher due to underrepresented communities not be factored into the dataset). contributing to shared spaces where community members are able to access food is a key strategy to support folks’ ability to meet their needs and to combat food insecurity.
in austin: according to ATX Free Fridge Project’s website and Instagram, “central texas has a higher percentage of food insecure households than most of the country!”
1 out of 6 folks experience food insecurity.
food that is placed in the free fridges is typically taken within 15 minutes! most fridges get visited 100 - 200x per day!
there are currently 6 active free fridges throughout the city (Redbud is currently closed).
the more consistently people contribute to the fridges, the more effective this strategy is.
step-by-step implementation guide:
text your friends, neighbors, or whoever else you’d like to be involved to coordinate a day to prepare the food and distribute it.
you can also do this on your own if you prefer.
pick your recipe (you can use the one below or pick your own).
suggestion: consider dietary restrictions, remember that you likely won’t know folks’ dietary restrictions ahead of time so try to make something that is more accessible.
ahead of the event decide on how costs will be shared (who will purchase the ingredients? who will be responsible for covering these costs?) and who will be involved in prepping the rice and beans (this can be more time intensive)?
suggestion: delegate and ask folks to bring an ingredient or two.
when splitting costs, consider different aspects of privilege that might influence why different folks might contribute differently rather than splitting everything equally.
the day before the event prepare the beans and rice — either as a group or with a select group of folks
this is critical if you are using dried beans as they will need to soak the day before!
assemble together and decide who will take on which responsibilities:
cooking and/or (re)heating beans
cooking and/or (re)heating rice
heating tortillas
assembling burritos
rolling burritos
labeling burritos (if you have someone with a printer who can print labels this makes it much easier!)
make sure you label ingredients, preparation date, and include any dietary restrictions. more best practices can be found on the ATX Free Fridge website.
distributing burritos
if possible, notify the folks that maintain and steward the fridges so that they can alert the community
do the thing: cook and distribute!
check in after it went to see how folks felt, gather any feedback. decide if you want to do this again and if so, who is responsible for coordinating the next one.
how it went and how it’s going:
a group of six of us, that participate in an ongoing learning and skill-sharing group called Connection Club, came together to create 158 burritos and distributed these across all the free fridges in town! in our case, we had miscalculated how many lbs of dried beans we would need so we ended up having a massive surplus of beans.
personally, as soon as I dropped off the burritos I saw folks accessing the fridge and taking them. I talked to a few of them, everyone was very friendly and kind.
I am bringing this idea to my neighborhood group that formed from the potluck (check out this essay for more details) and folks are excited about it!
recipe: frijoles charros, mexican rice and cheese burritos
(courtesy of one of my beloveds, Robert “Bobby Digital” Foster)
from Robert: This idea was inspired by The LA Burrito Project, now known as The Burrito Project. I was only a lowly tortilla toaster, roller and bike delivery rider with them, so feel free to add your own spin on the recipe especially if you want to avoid any spiciness. I would leave out all but one jalapeño and use only 1/2 the liquid and get a mild salsa. Salsa is still important so I wouldn’t forgo it completely.
Assembly Ingredients:
40 burrito sized tortillas
2 lb bag of shredded cheese
~3 lbs of salsa (one large Pace sized bottle is 4lbs, but choose whatever you’d like)
Frijoles Charros
4lbs of dried pinto beans
1 medium onion chopped fine or throw it in a food processor
~2 cans fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis (if those are not available, fire roasted tomatoes are the important part)
1 small can of pickled jalapeños (do not drain we are throwing the juice in with the jalapeños)
3 bay leaves
4 tsp of cumin
3 tbsp Epazote (oregano esp Mexican / spicy oregano can be used)
6 tsp of Better than Bullion vegetarian bullion
Salt to taste
8 cloves garlic minced or thrown in blender with tomatoes juice
Preparation Instructions:
Soak beans in salt water for at least 4 hrs and up to 12 hours
After soaking, drain the beans.
Heat oil in a very large pot
Cook onions for a few minutes
Dump everything else in the pot
Cover beens with water and stir to mix
Cook until tender (~45 minutes)
Remove bay leaves and whole jalapeños if you can find them
I like to smash up some of the beans to make it thicker, though that is not required and you don’t want to mash all of them as it would be too thin and would need to be cooked down more or refried most likely.
Vegetarian Mexican Rice (can also substitute for other types of rice)
from Robert: Honestly, I don’t like Mexican rice (thanks Austin Independent School District for making it poorly and requiring you get it with the enchiladas that were amazing) so I don’t have a great recipe for it and messed it up a bit so I don’t have a strong recommendation. Essentially a recipe like this one from School Night Vegan works except scale things up to 2.5 pounds of dried rice. I also only toast the rice briefly before cooking because toasting that much rice would take a while.
here is that scaled up:
2.5lbs long grain rice
6 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onion finely chopped (or food processor)
6 cloves garlic finely minced
3 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon cayenne or ancho chilli powder
2 liters hot vegetable stock/broth for stove method 1.5 liters for instant pot
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis
Fresh cilantro to serve
from Robert: why 4lbs of dried beans but only 2.5 lbs of dry rice? Rice triples in weigh after cooking while Pinto beans are closer to 2.2 x the weight. I normally want more beans than rice so that is how we get these numbers. This should give you about 100g of beans per burrito, 80g of rice, 30g of salsa and 20 g of cheese. Obviously if you want it vegan just leave out the cheese.
open invitation to all my readers to drop a comment with what exists near you!
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transforming your relationship around money and navigating through where you feel stuck
reimagining (small and big) ways to step outside of capitalism and integrate these into your livelihood
clarifying your holistic financial picture (living, giving, and saving) and more fully aligning your wealth to your values
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