'A food desert': Community-powered fridge opens in Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park to provide easy access to fresh produce

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's been two months since the Pick 'n Save grocery store in Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park neighborhood shut down, leaving some residents without easy access to fresh produce. 

But as of Wednesday, Sept. 17, thanks to the joint partnership of several local organizations, there's a possible solution.

Proudly standing inside of the Tricklebee Cafe is what officials are calling the area's first "community-powered fridge."

"It's for the community, by the community," said restaurant owner Christie Melby-Gibbons. 

How it works is all fresh produce is donated by organizations, farmers, or just members of the community who want to give back. Anyone is then welcome to it -- and there's no cost.

“There is great need in this neighborhood, there always has been," Melby-Gibbons said. "It’s not new, it’s exacerbated because we lost our only full-service grocery store.”

In the last 48 hours, the fridge has already been restocked twice, showing Melby-Gibbons the need for items like tomatillos, eggplants, tomatoes, and more.

“We were often, in the last decade, hovering kind of right at that food desert linen, and losing the grocery store bumped us. So now we are a textbook food desert, so people have to drive several miles to get fresh produce," Melby-Gibbons said. “We thought, well, what are some short-term solutions we can offer until we get a big store back in this area?"

That's when One MKE stepped in, a nonpartisan coalition that donated money to purchase the fridge. 

“These people in Metcalfe Park and surrounding areas do matter," said Community Outreach Coordinator Michael Orlowski. "They deserve priority and the dollars to support that.”

Metcalfe Park Community Bridges Deputy Director Melody McCurtis said five other organizations have already stepped up to ask how they can help out and make their own community fridge.

“The goal is to have more than this one and we hope that it aligns with what folks are doing. And that way, we have more ground covered where folks can just go and get the things that they need," McCurtis said. “So, this is really filling the gap from a lot of issues when we think of access, when we think about waste, and when we think about community.”

The fridge can be accessed Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and it's located at 4424 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53208.