SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Since the end of 2018, Brie has run The Awkward Gardener's (TAG) Community Table as part of her effort to get food into as many food insecure Sacramento residents' bellies as possible.
She started off growing and cultivating food for unhoused people in her garden and was hoping to birth a nonprofit. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the trajectory of her volunteer work was forever changed.
"I self-isolated for a long time," said Brie, who asked her last name be withheld to protect her privacy because of the risks associated with her volunteer work. "So I just cooked all day long."
This is when she began growing a closer partnership with fridges and pantries ran by volunteers across Sacramento, and realized they needed help as well.
The recent history of community fridges, pantries
In what resemble small markets, Matthew Ampersand and his food distribution group, Community Fruit 916, help get food out to community fridges and pantries across Sacramento.
Ampersand shares a common goal with the volunteers running food distribution locations across the city — keeping the community fed by any means necessary.
"We have volunteers that go into people's backyards, and a lot of times it's folks who are seniors and folks with mobility issues, and we'll go into those backyards and harvest the food there," he said.
One of the most prevalent food distribution networks in the area to launch before the COVID pandemic was Davis Night Market. They started in 2019 and now help support five community fridges across Davis.
"We never stopped for the pandemic," said Davis Night Market volunteer, Max Morgan.
Change came in 2021 when large storms left the volunteers without electricity to power their fridges, leaving the food to rot.
"There's a stronger and stronger push to really look at sustainable recovery of food because the people who make this food take pride in it. They don't want to throw it away," Morgan said.
The future of community fridges, pantries
Another Sacramento-based volunteer joining the food distribution network after COVID-19 was Carin Humphrey. She told ABC10 she opened up a food pantry outside her home in Tahoe Park.
"It's been open for three years now. Now I can really see who comes to the (food pantry) and it's unhoused people, families who just can't make it through," Humphrey said. "We have a lot of senior citizens who are on a fixed income, and this inflation is just killing them."
Humphrey even crafted a home-made Christmas tree beside the food pantry during the holidays for the students and other kids who would stop by.
She put small gifts underneath the Christmas tree for the kids to grab a present in case they needed to get a family member a present.
"I live close to Hiram Johnson High School and sometimes I'll get students that'll grab a Cup of Noodle on the way to school," Humphrey said.
But while community-hosted fridges and pantries have become common places to donate food, Brie says this hasn't always been the case.
"Fridges and pantries are actually fairly new to the Sacramento region," she said.
Once Brie started posting to social media her desire to expand from gardening and tackle all forms of food distribution, she came into contact with other volunteers wanting to address food insecurity.
"COVID made it more clear how food insecure so many people were as a result of (the virus)," said Paul Andrews of the community action network Mutual Aid Sacramento, which works with fridges and pantries.
Food distribution volunteers used to working with unhoused communities are finding more people coming to fridges and pantries who are picking up food so they could pay other bills.
Not only are more and more familiar faces stopping by for pick-ups, but frequent volunteers are increasing and so are food drop-offs.
And Brie became one of the most visible food distribution volunteers in Sacramento.
"I'm amazed every time I see the meals she's cooking, stuff that's going to provide calories, and she would take a lot of donations," Andrews told ABC10.
List of Sacramento community fridges:
- 1322 F St.
- 2402 I St.
- 3349 44th St.
- Mission Avenue & Marconi Avenue
List of Sacramento community pantries:
- 6120 19th Ave.
- 5930 19th Ave.
- 4244 Cabrillo Way
- 1617 25th St.
- 425 Lampasas Ave.
- 833 Florin Rd.
- 5498 Carlson Dr.
- 3200 16th Ave.
- 2021 Bell St.
