The Rock Hill Community Fridge, located at The Mercantile, serves as a hub for distributing excess and donated food to those in need.
The Mercantile, located at 130 W. White St. in Rock Hill, hosts the community fridge at its storefront and provides branding materials and marketing for it. Launched to help those struggling during the pandemic, the community fridge provides fresh produce, water, bread, juice, packaged meats, dairy products and other food, some of which would otherwise be thrown away by grocery stores, at no cost and with no questions asked.
“The goal really was to try to eradicate food waste,” Mercantile employee Erin Anderson said. “There is so much food insecurity in Rock Hill… We have got so much food in our own cabinets and in our own pantries. We might as well redistribute that. Or, you know, stores just throwing out countless amounts of food every day. So a lot of what we were trying to do is get people to come to donate things like that.”
Despite having upwards of 200 people a day getting food from the fridge, Anderson said the fridge has never had a problem keeping food in stock. Organizations and businesses often directly donate money to keep the food stocked, and volunteers fundraise online to fill in the gaps. A group of volunteers also help clean and maintain the fridge.
“There are at least 10 people that fill it up constantly, but 50 plus people [contribute], ranging from businesses to just people walking by,” Anderson said. “And that’s what we wanted to see. Instead of just having that solid group, make it our community.”
Anderson encouraged everyone, especially Winthrop students, and not just those who are food insecure, to come and pick up something. In addition to the fridge, Winthrop community members have access to the Winthrop Food Box, a donation-based food and personal care item pantry created by the Department of Human Nutrition located at 308 Dalton Hall.
“Access to food – both to enough food and to nutritious food that promotes health – is known as food security, and food security is integral to a person’s overall success and wellbeing,” Food Box Liaison Alexa Allen said. “Access to food resources, such as community pantries, boxes, and fridges, contributes to an individual’s wellbeing by helping them become successful and reach their full potential. In doing so, they are also able to contribute more fully to their community and those around them.”
Around 30% of students at Winthrop experience food insecurity, according to Allen, which is higher than the Feeding America state average. The Food Box, like the community fridge, is available no questions asked, but appointments are required and can be made through its website.
“Anybody can use this fridge. That’s really the goal that we want to get out. Like anybody can come and grab something,” Anderson said. “It’s not about how poor you are or anything. It literally isn’t about anything. It’s just about trying to move food through our community and make sure that everybody eats.
“And creating concepts like this helps us understand that food insecurity should not be a thing. Even if no one is benefiting from this, they can still look at this and go, ‘Oh wow, we really should be feeding more of our community.’”
