Urban Pantry

Asmeret Berhe-Lumax is a double expat with a third cultural identity. Born in the Eritrean capital of Asmara—which was part of Ethiopia until the early 1990s—her family relocated to Sweden as refugees in the late ’70s during the decades-long Eritrean War of Independence, when Berhe-Lumax was but a few months old. Scandinavia became her home until she fell in love with New York, making the move to the city when she was 19.

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Now based in Brooklyn, the 46-year-old mother of two champions a tried-and-true mode of enacting change: focus hyper-locally. She founded One Love Community Fridge (OLCF) during the height of the pandemic to combat food insecurity. “Everyone wants to change the world,” says Berhe-Lumax, who in addition to serving as a county committee member of her New York neighborhood of Clinton Hill is also the co-founder of Black Beauty Club. “We think about the bigness, and we forget about our own front yard, backyard, and next door neighbor.”

The concept of community fridges is radical yet simple: Strategically placed in public spaces, they provide free, nutritious, and easily accessible food to those in need, with direct support coming from the surrounding neighborhoods. While the idea predates OLCF, the nonprofit mutual-aid organization stocks 38 fridges across New York City with thousands of pounds of fresh food weekly. Its network sources produce and meals from local restaurants, farms, and food partners such as Sakara and Oko Farms. It’s an efficient solution to combat America’s flawed supply chain, where fresh, unexpired food ends up in landfills even as food insecurity hits new highs. A survey by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that more than a third of New York adults lived in a household at risk for food insecurity in 2021.

“It’s not just about providing food—it’s about creating opportunities for people to become the healthiest and most productive citizens they can be."
— Asmeret Berhe-Lumax

The nonprofit also tackles the nutrition crisis. Traditional food pantries need products with a long shelf life, which often equates to high sodium and sugar levels. “It’s not just about providing food—it’s about creating opportunities for people to become the healthiest and most productive citizens they can be,” says the founder, who emphasizes the link between food justice and racial justice. “When people don’t have access to fresh and healthy food, that’s when we start seeing alarming rates of obesity, asthma, and diabetes. And we see it at a younger and younger age. If you look at nutrition access and food access based on different communities and what is available to them, you easily identify minority groups.”  

OLCF, which expanded to the West Coast this season with two community fridges in Seattle, is part of a vibrant grassroots movement that underscores the power of community. Beyond reducing food waste and providing nutrient-rich food to those in need, it collaborates with local farms, schools, and chefs to collectively address hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. “This is the ultimate goal: to create a ripple effect with other people in the community, to sustain the momentum rather than it being a managed organization,” says Berhe-Lumax. “It’s the difference between an organization and a movement.”