As Chicago, Illinois residents struggle with the economic downturn as a result of the coronavirus, the Love Fridge Chicago is bringing fully stocked refrigerators to neighborhoods struggling with food apartheid.

According to a new tool from Northwestern University that looks at the rate of food insecurity during COVID-19, roughly 20 percent of Illinois residents are food insecure. Those numbers are even higher for Black and Latinx residents.

And a study from the University of Chicago shows that, despite an increase of supermarkets across Chicago, access to affordable healthy food was persistently poor in low-income neighborhoods.

Through the Love Fridge Chicago, founder Ramon Radius and his team of volunteers are trying to address the city’s food apartheid. The program aims to bring free food to neighborhoods in the South and West Sides in Chicago that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and food insecurity.

The Love Fridge Chicago works by installing refrigerators filled with food around the city. The refrigerators are available for anyone to take what they need at any time of day. Radius defines this as a mutual aid model, explaining that local residents regularly typically restock the fridges.

Read the full article about the Love Fridge Chicago by Kimberly Behzadi at Food Tank.