Funky Town Fridge founder teaches community to become self-sustainable

Kendra Richardson, the founder of Funky Town Fridge, LLC., had a vision of community solidarity. The three fridge locations offer free food to their community.

“The whole point of a community solidarity fridge is to heighten the contradictions of food apartheid communities, capitalism and racism to bring awareness and help people build the resources they need to live self-sustainable lives,” Richardson said.

The goal of the fridge is to have community members fill the fridge with groceries so that organizers don’t have to fill the fridge daily, which could cost upwards of $300 daily. 

Funky Town Fridge’s efforts extend from redistributing books to people in the community to helping high school students who help their parents with rent. Founded on Sept. 26, 2020 at 2308 Vaughn Blvd., Richardson’s most-known venture was her work during February’s deep freeze. 

“First, we set up a phone bank and started calling people in Black and brown communities in the city and asking them if they were OK, if they had power and if they had any immediate needs,’ Richardson said. “We did this grocery delivery with this company that was kind of like Uber. They got some drivers out so that we could touch some of the farther out areas like Arlington, Haslet and North Richland Hills.”

“During the height of the pandemic, Richardson said, she found it hard to balance her health and her services. Racial trauma and listening to residents’ stories of struggle stories combined to create an emotional toll.”

“It’s just a lot. It’s a lot dealing with it, especially hearing other people’s stories on top of your own.”

– Kendra Richardson, founder of Funky Town Fridge

“It’s just a lot. It’s a lot dealing with it, especially hearing other people’s stories on top of your own,” Richardson said. “But, in order to build community, you have to be willing to give what you have and also listen and learn from the stories of other people.”

Richardson is taking a more hands-off approach to the fridge locations during a resurgence of cases.

“The fridges will always be there,” she said. “I am going to pace myself a lot more so a lot of the things we did this year, we will not be doing next year until I can find good dedicated help. We’ll mainly focus on the fridges and building community.”