A partnership between UC Merced and a high school is helping residents get fresh food

As the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, Cristian Miley discovered many families in his community were struggling with food insecurity.

The Delhi High principal was increasingly hearing stories of residents who couldn’t even supply their families with basic food necessities required to get by.

He decided something needed to be done. Along the way, he found some like-minded folks to accomplish that goal.

Together with UC Merced’s Sustainable Food Programs and Dr. Stergios “Steve” Roussos, director of Community Initiatives for Collective Impact, Miley launched a “People’s Fridge” at Delhi High.

The program allows the community to come and take whatever produce and dairy products they need from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, regardless of income level.

The produce and dairy products are all donated by Liberty Market in Delhi and other grocers in Delhi, flea markets, and food distribution sites from United Methodist Church in Merced and the Merced County Food Bank. Overall the cost of the project and shed combined came to an estimated $10,000, coming from grant money, Miley said.

Community Initiatives for Collective Impact is a nonprofit organization in Merced County, focused on grassroots initiatives and social/environmental justice.

In recognition of launching the People’s Fridge initiative, Delhi High held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon.

Miley smiled with pride Thursday, happy that the hard work it took to establish the project came to fruition.

“A few months ago we just talked about this in meetings and now it’s on campus and it’s real and people use it,” Miley said.

“I think too often we talk about things we need to do in our communities, but we don’t take the action required because it’s never easy, it’s not like you can slap it together and walk away. But if you make a commitment to it, you can do something that will be really transformative.”

Lloyd Pareira, Merced County District 4 supervisor, attended Thursday’ ribbon cutting. Pareira mentioned there could be similar projects around Merced County in the future to help address food insecurity.

“Having them around the community is a good idea,” he said. “I don’t know how widespread it will be, but when you have supportive groups wanting to do it, it makes it easier.”

Second local project of its kind

Located at the back of the school, the People’s Fridge is essentially a refrigerator enclosed by a blue shed depicting painted images of people holding hands on a globe, produce, a home and the words stating “eat together” and “help one another.”

The artwork was done by Delhi High seniors and twins Alisson and Iris Flores, students of art teacher Stephanie Conrardy.

The initiative was first formed in September. At that time they launched a People’s Fridge in Merced at 936 W. 18th St. and it is open 24/7.

With the initiative going strong in Merced, Roussos reached out to Miley and suggested the idea of having a People’s Fridge in Delhi.

“It provides people a dignified way of getting fresh produce that they need, and doing so in a way they can access it for free, and it’s dignified in the sense that they’re not waiting in line,” Roussos said.

One might assume a person could take more than they need, but thus far that hasn’t been an issue.

“You’re not seeing people clean out the fridge, they take what they need, and then we restock it,” Roussos explained.

Although the ribbon cutting was Thursday, the fridge actually has been around for six weeks.

“It’s been very popular, it’s being used quite a bit,” said Adolfo Melara, Delhi Unified superintendent. “The produce is moving which is really the intent of the project and that means our community is benefitting from it.”

Traction has picked up so much, Miley ends up having to refill the fridge multiple times during the month.

Roussos said the project isn’t just a wonderful way for the community to get much needed, healthy produce, fruits and vegetables.

“The other thing that we sometimes forget is that is the food that’s coming here is one way for us to prevent it from going to a landfill,” he said.

This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.