Love Fridge Chicago - Full Circle
By Love Fridge Chicago
Interviewed by Chef Chanell Hale
The Love Fridge is a Chicago-based mutual aid group grounded in food, working to place community refrigerators across the city. We are powered by kindness, generosity, love, and the belief that being able to feed yourself is a right, not a privilege. These refrigerators, painted by local artists to reflect the communities in which they live, provide neighbors the opportunity to donate food as well as take what they need, ensuring accessible food 24/7.
In late 2020, The Love Fridge announced Full Circle—a parallel initiative to partner with chefs and restaurants in the community to stock our fridges with delicious and nourishing meals.
Fridge locations left to right: The Good Neighbor Love Fridge — 66th and Pulaski, Community Pantry on South Drake — 2233 S. Drake Avenue, Bidi Bidi Nom Nom — 5000 W. Fullerton Avenue
This interview was conducted by Chef Chanell Hale, a Chicago-based traveling chef and caterer. Hale believes that everyone and every community should have access to health-conscious and delicious food. You can follow her culinary journey on Instagram.
Chef Chanell: What motivated The Love Fridge Team to create Full circle and how did it get started?
The Love Fridge: Full Circle was initially born in November 2020. Our mission through this initiative is to uplift chefs and restaurants in communities throughout Chicago by paying them equitably for their time and meal contributions. We also wanted to find a way to stock the fridges with ready-to-eat meals, knowing that winter would be challenging for the community and those who are houseless.
The name “Full Circle” encompasses the practices that mutual aid is grounded in—providing resources to the community by investing in the community and its members.
It’s such an honor to have Chef Chanell conduct this interview! She’s been core to The Love Fridge since the beginning and was the first chef we partnered with for Full Circle back in November.
Thank you! I’m grateful to be involved! Why was it so important for you to partner with local chefs and restaurateurs like myself?
Our mission is two fold: amplify and support folks who work for food rescue, sovereignty and justice throughout Chicago, and deepen our relationships in the communities where we have fridge locations. Another pillar of Full Circle is to specifically highlight BIPOC chefs + restaurants—if we are putting money back into the community we want to be intentional with our partnerships and help people continue to do what they are already doing. Being able to stock the fridges with amazing meals is just icing on the cake (we love a food pun).
What is the general goal of Full Circle?
Simply put, our goal is to contribute to the communities we’re in solidarity with by celebrating culinary culture and offering meals in return. We also love that this initiative has the potential to introduce people to food, chefs and restaurants that they might never have had the opportunity to try.
Full Circle meals prepared by Belli's Juicebar, Image Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis
Since all your partner chefs and restaurants are paid for their time, how were you all able to create resources and fund this initiative?
The Love Fridge is a completely volunteer-based organization, so all of our donations go into specific initiatives. Once we launched Full Circle and saw the community love, we started an Open Collective page to continue funding this specific project.
What does community represent to Full Circle?
Community is the circle—it’s where everything is created and ultimately where energy should be reinvested in order to uplift each other and ensure we're all afforded health and sovereignty.
Over the past six months what impact do you believe Full Circle has had on the communities you all are able to support?
We don’t necessarily have the data to speak to measurable impact, but we can say for certain that our Full Circle meals are the first to go from the fridges. There’s a meaningful value in finding a fully-cooked meal in the fridge and being able to reallocate that time, energy and money you would have spent on preparing a meal toward some other activity, or even just rest. We also believe in the power of food as a means of community care and connection, especially during the pandemic.
Full Circle meal delivery in action, Image Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis
Why is mutual aid at the core of Full Circle?
Mutual aid is rooted in solidarity where people work cooperatively to meet the needs of everyone in the community. With Full Circle, it all comes back to reciprocation. Reciprocating the love, support and resources that these folks offer to the community—letting people know that they aren’t alone.
What’s next for the Full Circle initiative? Any exciting collaborations in the works?
We have some exciting partnerships with new chefs and restaurants lined up over the next few months! We’re also thrilled to work with a few of our past chefs again, allowing us to pay and invest in their work even more. We’re also expanding our relationships with BIPOC photographers and illustrators in order to document the initiative on our blog.
Do you have any plans to activate more spaces, whether that’s more fridges or spaces to commune?
Yes! We paused opening new sites for the winter and are excited to begin placing new fridges over the next few weeks into the summer. Our Patchwork Farms, Prairie Avenue and fridge at The Plant have all opened recently. We have more sites coming to Rogers Park and another in Back of the Yards going live in the next few weeks, as well as several more locations in Humboldt Park in the works. But we're always looking to expand our reach into the south and west sides, as those are the areas experiencing serious food apartheid.
If you’re inspired to get involved or learn more, please get in touch with us!