Hope Fridge
Take what you need, leave what
you can.
332 Broad Street
Menasha, WI 54952
Open 24/7/365
All are welcome!
Thank you to our Menasha hosts, People of Progression and Multicultural Coalition
The Hope Fridge is located behind their building.
Everyone deserves to know where their next meal is coming from.
Visit our community fridge to help yourself, your neighbor, or to donate unexpired fresh food and unopened hygiene supplies on site.
Cold Food, Warm Hearts.
When you participate with and donate to Hope Fridge, you help ensure fresh and cold food, non-perishable food, and various household goods like diapers, socks, and soap are available to those who need it anytime of day.
Hope Fridge is a mutual aid project. We are not a charity or a non-profit. We are community operated and maintained and we are open every day of the year to every person, regardless of their circumstances and without qualifiers.
Hope Fridge helps our community thrive while reducing food waste. We take care of our neighbors and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
Hope Fridge Guidelines for Donating Food
In the fridge and freezer, please donate only sealed, unopened, clearly labeled & unexpired foods and fresh produce, including:
- ready-to-eat / grab-and-go meals and snacks
- fruit juices, water, and sports drinks
- bananas, oranges, apples, and other fresh produce
- pastries, baked goods, and bread
- cheeses, yogurt, pasteurized eggs, and pasteurized milk
- cured sandwich meats
- Lunchables, fruit snacks, granola bars
- frozen dinners
- cooking oils (no glass containers, please!)
- homemade meals: please wash hands, wear a hairnet/beard-net, and practice basic food safety guidelines when preparing meals. All ingredients must be labeled – must also include the date made
- prepared meals made in a commercial kitchen: All ingredients must be labeled – must also include the date made
Please, Do Not Donate!
- expired/outdated items
- raw meat or raw fish
- frozen raw meat or frozen raw fish
- raw milk or raw milk cheeses
- unlabeled multi-ingredient items
- anything in a glass container
- half-eaten leftovers
- canned goods without easy-open lids (not everyone has access to a can opener or a kitchen!)
- alcohol
- over the counter or RX medications
- religious/church recruitment information
Guidelines for Donating Household Goods
In the Pantry, we welcome donations of:
- non-perishable food like cereals, granola bars, fruit snacks, popcorn
- household supplies like toilet paper, laundry detergent, new socks
- medical supplies like Band Aids and Neosporin
- brand new Chapstick and sunscreen
- sanitary supplies like tampons, pads, soap, shampoo/conditioner
- dog and cat food (VERY clearly labeled so as to not be confused with human food!)
- baby supplies like diapers, wipes, and more diapers!
- gloves, scarves, hats, and socks
***Please refrain from donating clothes (other than gloves, scarves, hats, and socks), shoes, books, and other items to our community fridges. Please direct those donations to a local thrift store instead.
FAQs
Is there a limit to how often I can visit Hope Fridge or how much I can take with me?
Nope! Anyone can visit Hope Fridge and take whatever will help them or their friends and family at any time. Take what you need, leave what you can, and please leave Hope Fridge cleaner than you found it.
How can we help keep Hope Fridge clean?
We made a short video to show you how! Please click here to watch.
How can I volunteer at Hope Fridge?
We rely on volunteers to keep our fridges safe and clean. Volunteers check the fridge’s temperature and freezer functionality, organize food, throw away expired or open foods, and regularly clean and sanitize the fridge.
No need to sign up – show up anytime and help out!
If you would like to get more involved please join our mutual aid group > CLICK HERE
What other resources are out there to help me if Hope Fridge is empty when I visit and I still need help with food?
If you are experiencing an emergency, please call 911.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 988.
Visit our Mutual Aid resource page for information. The Truly Mutual Map has lots of community resources mapped in the region. See the full map HERE.
The FoodFinder app is a helpful way to find local food pantries in your area. Download the app, input your zip code, and a map of local food pantries, as well as their hours, addresses, phone numbers, and websites will appear.
211 can help connect you with the available local resources best fit to your unique situation, including food, housing, WIC, food stamps, mental health care, etc…
What is mutual aid?
According to “Mutual Aid, Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And The Next)” by Dean Spade, “mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis, or are making things worse. There is nothing new about mutual aid – people have worked together to survive for all of human history. Mutual aid projects expose the reality that people do not have what they need and propose that we address this injustice together.”
As a mutual aid project, Hope Fridge will aim to feed people, yes, but also to mobilize people, to expand solidarity, unity, and community, to ever-expand our commitment to justice when faced with the complex realities of injustice, to uplift marginalized communities, and to continue to help build and sustain social movements for systemic change.
What is a community fridge?
A community fridge is a form of mutual aid that provides fresh food and hygiene products to anyone in need at any time with no questions asked. A community fridge is an emergency service run by the community, for the community. A community fridge is not a charity.
A community fridge has no paid staff/employees and we have no paid volunteers. Everyone works together to ensure that a community fridge is kept safe, clean, and full of fresh food and hygiene supplies as much as possible.
A community fridge helps improve food security for our neighbors while reducing food waste.
Everyone is welcome to help keep our fridges safe and full!
Is Hope Fridge a food pantry?
Hope Fridge is not a food pantry. Hope Fridge is a mutual aid group.
Hope Fridge is a collection of community volunteers doing our best to ensure fresh and delicious food and new personal hygiene supplies are available for free to anyone who needs them any time of day without any invasive personal questions, limits, or restrictions. You can just show up to help. Read our guidelines about how to help. Would you like to learn more about joining our mutual aid group? CLICK HERE
Hope Fridge may be full of food one minute and completely empty the next.
Hope Fridge is always in need of fresh donated food and hygiene supplies that fit our donation guidelines. See our guidelines above.
Take what you need, and leave what you can!
Why doesn’t Hope Fridge accept donations of expired food?
Hope Fridge doesn’t accept expired food for safety reasons, but also because we know how it feels to be handed expired food when we’re struggling – not good.
It’s okay to make the decision for yourself to eat your own expired food, but when expired food is all you have available to eat and someone gave it to you intentionally, it can easily perceived as “this expired food is all you’re worth.”
That’s not true, but it can sting all the same.
People in need deserve fresh, delicious, and unexpired food!
Please donate food to Hope Fridge before it expires to help us reduce food waste, to treat our recipients with dignity and respect, and to save our volunteers the time spent disposing of expired food. Thank you!
Is Hope Fridge a 501(c)3 organization?
Not yet! We are a mutual aid organization and not a registered non-profit.
Why does Hope Fridge prefer donations of ready to eat food and not cans that are not pop-top?
TLDR version? People in need aren’t asking for cans.
Cans also presume that the recipient has a can opener to access the food, access to a kitchen to prepare the food, and the free time available to prepare the food.
Cans don’t move fast at our location and we have limited space. Cans are heavy and they can cause injury to a visitor if someone tries to lift a tote full of cans from one of our pantry shelves.
Canned foods are lacking in nutrients and flavor when compared to fresh and ready-to-eat foods. People in need deserve food that makes them feel good about being alive.
Hope Fridge aims to change the culture of giving in America away from the simplicity and affordability of cans, to instead closely consider the recipient’s experience, including their actual wishes and accessibility needs.
When you’re providing food to a family member or close friend who is in need of some help, would you drop off a collection of various cans to their front door, or would you drop off a ready-to-eat casserole or other ready-to-eat meal instead?
Let’s treat people in need in our communities with the same dignity and respect we show our loved ones by listening to what they are telling us they need, and providing those items to the best of our ability.
Why do Hope Fridge volunteers throw away expired food, opened containers, and unlabeled containers of food?
All people deserve healthy, safe, fresh, and non-expired food. Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe!
How can I start a community fridge in my area?
A group of us put this 22-page guidebook together based on what we’ve learned from starting and running multiple community fridges. It’s free, it’s practical, and it’s meant to inspire and be adapted to fit your community, not followed word for word or used as legal advice. If you’re thinking about starting a community fridge, already running one, or just curious, we hope it’s helpful. Please click the link below to read and share. Solidarity!
Mission
Hope Fridge is a mutual aid project based out of the Fox Valley in Wisconsin.
Our mission is to ensure that everyone knows where their next meal is coming from. We believe everyone deserves access to delicious food to eat with no questions asked and no paperwork to fill out. Food security is a human right, but the current systems we have in place to feed and advocate for the most vulnerable in our communities are often ineffective or inaccessible to the people most in need of help.
We have a responsibility to challenge and change unjust systems in our society, including our collective and individual unconscious and conscious biases, the systemic racism prevalent in nearly every system in our country, income inequality, the lack of access to affordable education and medical care, and the lack of access to healthy and affordable food.
Volunteers like you make this project possible by showing up for each other. Community volunteers build, maintain, clean, and stock our outdoor community fridges and pantries throughout our community.
There is no limit to how many times someone can visit our fridges and there is no limit to how much someone can take home from our fridges. Hope Fridge contents are always entirely free to everyone, regardless of their circumstances, thanks entirely to our generous donors and kind volunteers.
Hope Fridge welcomes individuals, organizations, restaurants, local businesses, and other like-minded community partners to help us combat hunger, food waste, and hopelessness in the Fox Valley by ensuring that those in need are directly connected (with dignity and no restrictions) to the food and supplies they need.
Cold Food, Warm Hearts.