The Saga of a Community Fridge in Las Vegas
Bo Brusco | March 21, 2020 (10-minute read)
In a time of job scarcity and food insecurity, a community fridge struggles to help those in need due to continual set-backs from the city in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Image from @lvtownfridge via Instagram, posted on October 16, 2020.
During these difficult times of unemployment and food insecurity, the efforts of non-profit organizations and individual volunteers have never been more crucial. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported, “Last year, 20% of households in Clark County, or approximately 450,000 residents, were food insecure.” A particular movement aiming to end food insecurity in the city is the Las Vegas Town Fridge Project. While this project’s mission is to fight food insecurity, recently, it has been struggling to do so as city officials continuously dismantle it.
The Las Vegas Town Fridge Project
“After seeing how inviting this new fridge was, and the responses we were getting from people, for me, it became more of a sense of empowerment and seeing what it could do,” says John Chou, as he reminisces on the early days of the project. Chou runs the Las Vegas Town Fridge Project’s Instagram account and is more or less the founder of the project.
The first fridge in Chou’s project was set up on September 19, 2020, in the downtown area of Las Vegas near Main Street, on the private property of United Movement Organized Kindess’s headquarters. It garnered the attention of local media outlets such as 8newsnow.com, fox5vegas.com, and ktnv.com. But this simple story of a community fridge has turned into a saga about an ongoing struggle between volunteers and city officials.
The First Shutdown
On September 25, 2020, only six days after the fridge had become operational, code enforcers foreclosed the fridge, informing Chou and other volunteers that the refrigerator was technically on the city’s property. “We assumed that the asphalt was where UMOK’s private property ended, so that’s where we originally put the fridge,” Chou explains. “But then the city said, ‘hey, this actually isn’t your land. This is what is called a transitional zone,’ and I guess it's a private property that the city has.”
Image from @lvtownfridge via Instagram, posted on September 25, 2020.
Sophye Wagner, the Secretary and Director of Resources for United Movement Organized Kindness, was determined to get the project running again, despite this first setback. “We took it into our own hands,” she recounts, “thinking that we would be able to fix the problem by making an inlet for the fridge to where the fridge would be located inside the property line with a little fence built around it so that people could access it still from the street walking by.”
Wagner, who also acts as the primary “host” for the Main Street fridge, working with Chou and the other UMOK volunteers, was able to accomplish exactly what she had described: a fenced inlet for the fridge that was not obstructing the transitional zone and was still publicly accessible. By October 11th, the Main Street fridge became operational once again.
The Second Shut Down
On January 5th, 2021, city inspectors shut the fridge on Main Street down for the second time. “The city came back down and gave us another citation,” says Wagner, “and told us that we had to go through Planning in order to get [the fridge] approved.” The main issue this time around, according to Chou, was a matter of zoning. “We were told that because of the zoning UMOK is originally zoned for, it can’t have stuff within ten feet of the property line,” Chou explains. “That meant that we had to submit a zoning application or a variance application for zoning for the property in order to allow us to put something within ten feet of the property.”
Where is the Fridge Now?
Since the beginning of the year, the Main Street community fridge remains closed, and the fenced inlet has been empty for weeks. The hurdles issued by the city this time around are complicated. In addition to the zoning issue, the city also stated that they did not want the fridge to be powered by an extension cord. “It’s on our property,” Wagner says, “but they said they didn’t want it being plugged in with an extension. Right now, we're in the works with Bell Solar to see if we can get it solar-powered.”
This is where it used to be. Main Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 18, 2020. (Photo: Bo Brusco)
Additionally, Chou admits that communicating with the different branches of the city has been difficult. “I learned that with the code inspectors and the Planning departments and, ya know, whatever other sectors there are — none of them have any idea about what’s going on in the other sectors,” says Chou.
Wanger shares a similar sentiment. She reasons that since this fridge is the first of its kind, the city doesn’t seem to have a set procedure around a project of this nature. “At times,” she explains, “I feel like they're citing laws, you know, and violations that, since there are no fridges, how are they citing codes that we’ve broken?” Perhaps this is why the city’s behavior appears to be antithetical to the project.
Street view. Main Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 18, 2020. (Photo: Bo Brusco)
The Biggest Obstacles
The two biggest obstacles that Chou and Wagner are currently trying to resolve are first, getting a zoning variance application approved, and second, installing solar panels for the fridge. According to Wagner, the zone variance application submission and process will cost approximately $800, and the cost to purchase and install solar panels will be between $5,000 to $7,000.
How the Fridge Helped to Stop Food Insecurity
It is clear to Wagner and Chou how this fridge has served a real purpose in the community. “We served at least 50 people a day,” says Wagner, “with various donors throughout the day coming to donate.” She also expresses her determination to see the fridge continue to benefit the community despite the current challenges. “In all these problems,” she says, “it’s motivated us to keep on going. We don’t want to back down from the city. We think it’s a great asset to the community and to the neighborhood.”
Chou recalls the central role the fridge played to fight food insecurity, saying that “Within any given hour, the fridge would be stocked, and within the next hour, the fridge would be empty. It was a constant turnover rate.”
How to Get Involved
Upon being asked how members of the community can help get the fridge up and running again, Wagner said, “Right now, with the challenges that we’re facing, maybe to just be more involved in community efforts where Planning and the city seem to always have the upper hand.” She also suggested visiting the Las Vegas Town Fridge Project’s Link Tree site or UMOK’s website to donate or volunteer.
While donations are always helpful and appreciated, Wagner fears that the city might potentially shut the fridge down again for some unforeseeable reason even after getting a variance application approved and installing solar panels. “We do need fundraising,” she says, “but with the position that we're in right now, we don’t want to raise the funds, pay the thousand, pay Bell Solar, and then get the project denied.”
Chou encourages those who want to get involved to donate food to the community fridge hosted by Project 4 Humanity at 912 E Sahara Ave. He also stresses how crucial hosts are to this project, saying that “the hardest part about this is finding a host or an area where we can put a fridge. Everything else is basically easy because once you find someone who is willing, all the other problems become negligible in comparison because you know they share the vision.”
Chou states on his Instagram account that any volunteer who hosts a fridge will have a refrigerator provided to them and that the energy costs for it will be covered as well. If anyone is interested in becoming a host or donating a fridge, Chou can be reached via the project’s Instagram profile (@lvtownfridge) or its webpage.
"More Work Needs to Be Done"
Despite the challenges before it, Chou expresses his conviction for the project. “The support that everyone else has given and that the community has provided with these fridges has been so amazing,” he says, “it's hard to be 100% on with something. It’s hard to always be consistent, and it's hard to always be on task, you know? But for me, what compelled me to be 100% on is when people reach out and show me that they’ve been contributing to the fridge. It’s like little reminders that more work needs to be done.” Inspired by the charitable acts of others revolving around his mission to stop food insecurity in Las Vegas, Chou says, “It’s really important to me that this fridge becomes a lasting piece and that everyone gets something out of it. I’m glad that people are resonating with it and that they’re really contributing to these kinds of efforts.”
