Christopher DeVargas
Victoria Flores is the creator of The Solidarity Fridge, a communal pantry in east Las Vegas. “You bring love into your community and then they give love back,” said Flores, who ran the refrigerator on Jan.
Saturday, 09/25/2021 | 2 a.m
A wooden structure tucked behind two palm trees in the front yard of a house on Blackthorn Drive in Sunrise Manor is visible when motorists turn into the eastern section of Las Vegas.
The sloping roof and the white-painted planks house a large, colorfully decorated refrigerator on which a sea-green shark is embossed, which with curved octopus-like arms throws products into its gaping mouth.
The refrigerator and the associated pantry are titled “The Solidarity Fridge”, which was designed by the resident Victoria Flores. Neon pink signs are pinned above the refrigerator and covered with drawn sunflowers. A sign reads: “Community Fridge & Pantry All Are Welcome”.
That message is true for the community members it serves, Flores said.
“The community is actually turning you on again,” she said. “You bring love into your community and then they give love back.”
Flores placed the refrigerator near Charleston Boulevard and Christy Lane on May 1st on International Labor Day. The pantry is usually filled with groceries like dried beans, rice cones, and canned soups, while the refrigerator holds groceries and bottles of water. Rarely will residents see highly processed junk foods or sweet treats, Flores said.
“I won’t turn down donations unless they’re open or have expired,” she said. “If I didn’t eat it, I wouldn’t leave it here. But I also want our communities to learn more about this: healthier alternatives instead of all the junk we consume. “
Like the free miniature libraries that populate some neighborhoods of Las Vegas, the fridge is maintained by donations from other Las vegans, though Flores says it will replenish it when needed. The refrigerator allows residents to take what they need and give what they can while at the same time enriching the neighborhood and the people who live there – something commonly referred to as mutual aid.
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Reciprocity is key to mutual aid projects, said Robert Futrell, professor and chairman of the UNLV’s department of sociology. Charity implies that one person donates to another, he said, while mutual aid movements benefit both or more groups that interact with them, although not necessarily equally.
This practice has been common in disadvantaged communities for years, Futrell said, as mutual aid projects often fill a void in government assistance to those in need. Futrell said he thinks that need became more urgent during the pandemic. “We’re going through a long catastrophe in a way,” he said. “Within what we might call ‘marginalized’ communities, marginalized from the mainstream or marginalized from access to resources and support services … (communities) fill the void by helping together.”
When Gia Santos – a single mother who lives down the street from the fridge with her three children, two dogs and a cat – lost her job in property management in April 2020, she used unemployment insurance and then rent allowance for over a year to to keep their family afloat.
But the addition of the refrigerator in May brought much-needed relief. Santos said she was now paying a quarter of what she used to pay at the grocery store and visiting the fridge once a week for basic necessities such as rice, beans, canned goods, produce and pet food, the latter provided by resident Malia Meyer.
“It’s just a feeling of gratitude and it’s nice to know that someone is taking care of the struggles people are going through during this time,” said Santos. “It was very comforting and she just made it so convenient that anyone can go to the fridge when needed.”
Flores has partnered with local organizations like the Fifth Sun Project and Las Vegas Liberation to fill the fridge and provide hot meals to residents in need. Every Sunday, Flores and a group of volunteers cook at least 60 plant-based meals for the homeless in Las Vegas using leftovers from the fridge.
Ezli Amaya, president of the Fifth Sun Project, said Sunday meals are usually vegan to show how a plant-based diet could be tastier, healthier and better for the planet.
“There are other people who have problems, who sometimes skip a meal or don’t have access to healthier foods,” she said. “Together we all agree that consuming more plant-based foods is much more sustainable. It’s healthier, and that’s what we strive for. “
The Las Vegan Food Bank also partnered with the refrigerator by donating leftover vegan grocery cartons that were originally given to the food bank by the Las Vegas Culinary Academy, said food bank director Chris McNulty.
If there are boxes of groceries left or residents don’t pick up theirs, the board donates the boxes to the refrigerator to clean up wasted food. About 35% of all 229 million tons of food in the United States is wasted or not sold, according to national nonprofit ReFED. Efforts like this limit that burden, McNulty said.
“We all live in the same community and we are all human and we all want to make sure that the people who need something are taken care of,” he said.
After the hot meals are prepared and packaged, Las Vegas Liberation then takes the dishes to homeless camps across the city.
“Our heavy reliance on a system that exploits us and leaves so many without basic humanities can be broken by developing our own safety nets / programs,” Kenny Fawkes, one of the eight directors of Las Vegas Liberation, said via email. “The meaning of these little humanities is getting clearer and clearer every day.”
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The solidarity refrigerator also bridges the huge gap between residents of East Las Vegas and fresh food, Flores said. The area lacks access to affordable, healthy grocery stores, adequate transportation to get to the closest ones, and no health education education.
The donations are not only coming from nonprofit organizations, nor are they exclusively from Eastside residents. Aimee Holdredge, who donates to the fridge every other week, lives in Summerlin, while Henderson’s Nichole Beer goes shopping for groceries on her way home every Thursday as a librarian.
“It’s as basic as it gets,” said Beer. “We go to the community that we serve. You shouldn’t have to come to us. “
Beer said she was excited to enlarge the refrigerator, especially since it will soon be neighbors with a mini-library built by Flores and other volunteers.
On Thursday, Flores shared the library’s progress on The Solidarity Fridge’s Instagram account. Although she uses social media to get the word out about the refrigerator, she said mouth and door-to-door interactions helped residents learn more about it.
“There’s more power in a collective than individualism,” she said. “We need each other, you know? Much more can be done together than separately or alone. “
