This particular grant that she’s reviewing is for a new project that her organization, the Lorain Public Library System and Lorain County Public Health all partnered on called the “freedge.”
“A freedge is a free refrigerator, open to the community,” Snipes-Martin said.
It’s at the South Lorain Branch Library, a place that Snipes-Martin said is convenient to the people she serves in the community.
“A lot of the families that we serve here through El Centro go to that library,” she said.
The library branch manager, Danielle Coward, said people in need will have access to free food all day, each day of the week.
“We restock multiple times a day,” Coward said.
Staff from El Centro help monitor the structure’s needs with the community in mind.
“With COVID and the situation with a lot of the families in our area, it’s just been very evident that they need a little more assistance,” Snipes-Martin said.
She added that the goal is to provide more people with fresh food.
“It’s easy to get unhealthy food, but it’s a little bit harder, a little bit more expensive to get healthy food,” Snipes-Martin said.
Donations are welcomed from others to keep the fridge filled.
“We do ask that you not stock the fridge yourself,” Coward said. “We need to check expiration dates and things like that. So we ask that you bring in things to El Centro or to the library. You can just drop them off here at the South [Lorain Branch] Library’s front desk.”
