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Community fridges popping up around Los Angeles
Strawberries and milk in hand, Bryant Rodriguez is doing what he does every week. Donating food to a community fridge like this one in Exposition Park.
LOS ANGELES - An old refrigerator stands upright next to Revolutionario Restaurant on Jefferson Boulevard. Brighty painted it welcomes those in need to reach in and have some food for free. By it is a poster that reads: "Take what you need, leave what you don't."
The fridge is one of a dozen placed around the community by a group called LA Community Fridge. Their locations are trumpeted on their Instagram page. These things are not regulated. FOX 11 has — so far unsuccessfully — reached out to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department to find out their sites.
At the Jefferson Avenue site, 38-year-old Bryant Rodriguez took strawberries and milk in from his car. With his daughter Vanessa, he is doing what he does every week, donating food to a community fridge. He says that when he shops he make sure the food he's donating is safe and not expired.
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From an elderly homeless woman to a college student, FOX 11 heard recipients say they were grateful for the free food.
Susan Park and Farid Zadi own the restaurant by the fridge. Park says her husband "grew up in a large and poor working-class family. She says he knew hunger and "sometimes he would go hungry."
Zadi is a classically trained chef and has worked in European restaurants.
It’s why he bikes around the neighborhood daily freely giving food he’s been stockpiling in the pantry of his restaurant.
“I give some of them dried food… something they can eat easily because they don’t have access to a kitchen,” said Zadi.
As for the nearby "community fridge," he says the number of people coming by and taking food is increase and on some days there would be 20 to 30 people in need.
Susan and Zadi are not responsible for the fridge. They just provide electricity and make sure it's clean for those who do come by for a helping hand.