The Community Fridge

[minoanmiss]

There's a community fridge/pantry in Medford Sq. I tend to put useful things into a bag and when the bag is full spend several weeks planning to get over to Medford Sq. Today WD took me on a lovely Sunday drive to do so.

I noticed a couple of things:

1) there are two cabinets on poles. I put books in the bigger. Someone labeled the smaller "Art Gallery" so I think I'm going to print out a bit of my art and stick it in there.

1a) then I will take off my shoes and run around in the fountain.

2) It would be really useful if someone could fill the fridge with little water bottles. I don't think I can fill it but maybe I can buy a 24-pack or two of water bottles. This week will be blessedly ordinary weather but next week might/may heat up again. I know it would be better environmentally to have. say, a Thing of water and a bunch of cups, but there are logistical and human nature reasons why I don't want to go that route.

Also as I was coming back from dropping off the books a lady had stopped by the pantry and she had the Most Beautiful Hair omg.

Ok, I should try to go back to sleep.

Comments

[amaebi]

I love blisses.

[lunabee34]

That's wonderful of you to put things in the pantry.

[julian]

Apropos of 1), thank you for your recent mail.

Apropos of 1a): yay! (I don't wade enough lately.)

[adrian_turtle]

My synagogue has both a Little Free Library and a Little Free Pantry. (No perishables in the pantry. The nearest community fridge is in Ball Square.) I only bring little things, but I try to make them count. I put so many sample bags or little jars of Penzeys spice blends in the pantry. And boxes of period stuff, which I didn't keep in MY pantry. But it always gets taken in a couple of hours.

Also as I was coming back from dropping off the books a lady had stopped by the pantry and she had the Most Beautiful Hair omg.

I love that "stopped by the pantry" doesn't say if she was putting in or taking out. So many people use the pantry in both directions at different times. You don't HAVE to put in. But it's all mutual aid, not the sharp distinction between needy recipients and generous donors.

[lb_lee]

WAIT THERE'S A COMMUNITY FRIDGE IN BALL SQUARE? WHERE?

[adrian_turtle]

I realize now that I was mistaken. I'm so sorry to mislead you. I had thought there was one in Ball Square. I'm not in Somerville more than once a month, and I failed to notice that "They're planning to build another community fridge in Ball Square because so many people are using the ones in Medford and Union Square," contained the infamous words "planning to." (More things are planned than built.) And that when people say, "I'm going to drop stuff off at the community fridge later," and waved a hand in the general direction of Ball Square, they were also waving in the general direction of Winter Hill. Or even Union Square.

Somerville Community Fridge has 3 locations:
35 Prospect St (Union Square)
36 Sewall St (Winter Hill)
33 St Clement Rd (Powderhouse)

[lb_lee]

Nevertheless, thanks so much! I was going to say, I used to live near Ball Square and was really excited to think a fridge had gone up there and I'd missed it.

[gosling]

There is a community fridge very near Ball Square, just a block or so over the Medford line, in the back parking lot of the St. Clements church. That is the closest one to my house, and where I usually drop off food etc.

[full_metal_ox]

I only bring little things, but I try to make them count. I put so many sample bags or little jars of Penzeys spice blends in the pantry.

Good. For. You. That’s a humanizing touch that will help the recipients customize those basic sacks of beans, rice, and pasta and cans of tuna and corn into meals.

And boxes of period stuff, which I didn't keep in MY pantry. But it always gets taken in a couple of hours.

Because—who’da thunk it?(1)—there are people who need menstrual hygiene supplies. (Once I’d outlived my need for such, I donated my stash to a local women’s shelter, who were delighted to receive it.)

(1) Certainly not this state representative gehayi once had the misfortune to work for (warning for smug faith-based ignorance and graphic description of menstruation to a grown man who needed an Explanation Like He’s Five):

https://gehayi.tumblr.com/post/133454492906/profeminist-myfeministawakening-i-was-inspired

[minoanmiss]

Oh my Goddesses I remember that story. aughghhghghghghgghg.

[adrian_turtle]

That's a disturbing story.
It reminds me of something I overheard a few years before the pandemic. A 15-year-old boy in Boston was apologizing to his mother because he was about to study the female reproductive system in school. Apologizing! He sounded really sorry. She said it was ok, she understood it wasn't his fault, it was just something he had to do for school.

Many states do not require any kind of sex education. Some states that do not require sex ed do not require that it be medically accurate. The case could be made that menstruation is not "sex education," but simply human physiology. However, Florida recently passed a bill about sex education that included "related subjects including menstruation," forbidding any teaching about such topics before 6th grade.

Those were the days when I mostly did math tutoring at my students' kitchen tables rather than online. Afterwards, I'd use their bathroom, put on my coat and boots, and head out. Some parents stopped noticing me when I left the kitchen and others stopped noticing me when I left the house. So a certain amount of eavesdropping was almost inevitable.

[full_metal_ox]

However, Florida recently passed a bill about sex education that included "related subjects including menstruation," forbidding any teaching about such topics before 6th grade.

I was between 5th and 6th grades—-and the lower end of the normal menarcheal curve now can be as low as 8 or 9 in the U.S., which works out to around 3rd grade.

That’s how you get Carrie White.

[adrian_turtle]

Menarche usually starts 18-24 months after the first signs of puberty. So menarche at 8 would mean breast buds and body hair starting at SIX. Back in my day, that was obviously precocious puberty, and a good reason for puberty blockers.

[magid]

I hadn't paid attention to there being a free fridge/pantry in Medford Sq (too far from my usual routes). I know there's one in Union Sq (across the street from the T station, in the CrossFit parking lot), and one at the Cambridge community center at 5 Callender St (around the side), which also has daily (or weekdaily?) food distributions. There had been one in Harvard Square at the Democracy Center, but since the center is closing/closed, I suspect the free fridge/pantry will go too.

[minoanmiss]

takes notes

[hitchhiker]

how lovely!

[med_cat]

Good plans :)