Worcester Speaks #3: Maria Ravelli
Worcester Speaks #3: Maria Ravelli
“It's deeper than food access, it's community building.”
The subject of this month’s Worcester Speaks is Maria Ravelli, a founding organizer of the Worcester Community Fridges, aka Woo Fridge. The fridges are a crucial mutual aid initiative offering everyone in the city free food and, perhaps more importantly, some community.
I’ve lightly edited and condensed the following conversation for clarity. If you have someone in mind for a future interview, let us know at billshaner@substack.com.
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Liz: I’d like to start by asking if you can just introduce yourself.
Maria: My name is Maria Ravelli and I am an organizer for Worcester Community Fridges.
Great. Can you share how long the fridges have been in operation and the basics for someone who isn't familiar?
So, the first community fridge in Worcester was opened in January 2021. And it was opened outside of Fantastic Pizza in the Main South neighborhood. And the entire concept around community fridges is just an open access food-sharing hub, basically, where neighbors can interact with it by sharing food, receiving food. It's definitely grown a lot since the first fridge started. Right now in Worcester we have five community fridges. All of them are open 24/7 and open for anybody to give what they need and take what they can.
That's awesome. When we talk about the fridges, we're talking about mutual aid, and I don't think a lot of people know what that means or how it's different from charity. Can you explain that?
Yeah. So mutual aid is, to put it kind of lightly, just basically taking care of each other and resource sharing. When we think about a charitable model, there's a very clear line between the giver and the receiver and in mutual aid, and with the fridges specifically, we really organize with the intention of blurring those lines, right? So you are somebody that can both give to the fridge and take from the fridge at any time. And one of our bigger guiding principles that we really root this work in is encouraging everybody to give with care and give with love, with the understanding that at any moment we can also be dependent on these systems of care in our community.
I know you're out tabling in the community a lot. When you say that at any minute, you could be the one who's hungry, who's needing some food, do people have a strong reaction to that?
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a specific demographic of person that has a really big reaction, like white older men. [They] tend to be like, “Whoa, what do you mean?” But one of the shocks to me is there is so much food waste that happens that there is enough food to supply everybody, regardless of your financial situation. Like, I'm somebody that I consider myself pretty food secure right now, kind of depending on the week, but for the most part, we're pretty food secure in our family. But when I go and do a food rescue and you are staring at three pallets’ worth of food that you would otherwise have to spend energy to go to the grocery store and buy, I am 100% also putting food in my fridge that I'm picking up.
And that's such a stigma that we have to unlearn within ourselves, right? Really encouraging people to understand like, this isn't about [a] financial demographic that you're meeting. There is so much food waste and we need to be moving this food in our community. There is the demographic of person that I talk to that are like, “No, that food is just for poor people.” And it's like, no. Like these are the Ben and Jerry eggs or whatever they're called. Like, this is $10 at Whole Foods. Just take a dozen, please, sir.
That's really funny. Yeah, this brings to mind a week that sweet potatoes like happened and I opened the fridge door on Brooks Street and it was just all sweet potatoes. The entire fridge.
So that was cool. That was from Mustard Seed on Piedmont Street. We encourage people, the day-to-day neighbor, to bring food when they can, if they have extras or if they're cooking a batch of something. We organize consistent food rescues. And then we also have last-minute food rescues where folks like Mustard Seed will call us and say, “We have 10 pallets of sweet potatoes. Can you help us out here?” And then we just get to work, we organize neighbors on our Discord. We put calls out to action on social media. We stop by the fridges. And if folks are like, “Where are these sweet potatoes?” We're like, “Do you have a car? Do you have time?”
I don't know why, but the idea of an urgent need being around a very large quantity of one specific food always makes me laugh a little. Like, “listen, we've got a sweet potato problem.”
Sweet potato 911! One of the first bigger food rescues that we did—and this was before we had any formal partnership—the Walmart in Leicester called us and they were like, we have so many pallets’ worth of broccoli and pineapple. And this is when we had maybe five people engaged in this work. So we were like, all right, everybody, boots on the ground. Like, let's go [laughs]. And we went to this Walmart all in our little cars like this pulled up and my mom has a bigger car. And I remember her pulling up and she was like, she calls me Fern. And she's like, “Ay, Ferni, what have you gotten yourself into?” I filled her SUV with just broccoli. And I was like, “No questions, Mom, please.”
So in the Worcester Community Food Assessment, they found that half of the survey respondents were aware of the community fridges—I'm quoting from when Bill wrote about this—and about 25% have used them, and that was actually higher than some state and federal programs. How would you account for that success?
Ooh, that's such a big question. We've looked at the assessment and I think that those numbers make sense. I think for the most part, we're all very conditioned to interact with food pantries, right? Or to interact with these more charitable models of moving food, [so] there's a lot of hesitancy about engaging in just, you know, getting handed food by your neighbor in this really kind of informal way. And there's a lot of relationship building there in that. It's vulnerable, right? It's really vulnerable work for a lot of people.
So I was personally surprised with that number 'cause I would've thought that it was higher. Honestly, just being at the fridges as much as I am and having conversations when we're tabling, people that come and they're like, “Oh yeah, I've heard of this before.”
But I think it's beautiful. I think it shows how much energy has been put into building this project for the last four years, that it's making an impact enough that the Worcester County Food Bank is putting this in their little assessment.
Well, I was wondering when I saw that number, I was thinking this kind of has to be word of mouth, you know? I know that you guys are out in the community and tabling, but like, this is not a state program. Nobody's getting a letter from the state saying you should go to a community fridge. And I imagine that a non-stigmatizing form of food assistance is going to do better word of mouth than say, you know, a food bank where you're lining up for two hours and you're showing ID or whatever those situations are.
Yeah. Absolutely. One of the other ways that we get the word out about the fridges is we'll go to places where we know that folks are gathering and needing food. You know, when the winter shelters are active, whenever we have an abundance of anything or just something that I know folks will enjoy when they're hanging outside, I'll just pull up and I'll talk to people and I'll share food that way. So word of mouth definitely is big. And I think there's something that feels less intimidating, right? When a neighbor is coming and just saying like, “Hey, I got a bunch of ice cream. Does anybody want some?” And you're sitting there with them eating ice cream with them and just chatting about anything, right? Like, nothing that has to do with resources. Just like, how are you holding up? Just like a genuine check-in. That's going to encourage people to feel safer, hopefully. That's the hope, to feel safer to come to the fridge and knowing that there's no judgment, knowing there's no camera, knowing that there's little to no barriers to them just getting a snack.
Yeah. That sounds so normal. And at the same time, I think it's highly abnormal that someone would, say, encounter people who are unhoused and treat them as neighbors or interact with them as human beings.
For sure. And I think there's definitely a lot of unlearning that happens, right? When you're engaged in mutual aid work in general, but just when you're engaged in community work. It's like we really have to be mindful that these are our neighbors and all of our struggles are interconnected. All of our joys are interconnected, right? So whether we have disputes or whatever it is with these people, like, we have to live with these people, right? And that's really vulnerable work.
So every time I've been at a fridge, somebody has said something to me like, “I'm just worried that someone's gonna take more than their fair share” or like, “Oh, I'll take eggs, but you know, some people take all the eggs,” or like, “Some people don't even need what they're taking.” I mean, every single time I get chatting! I would love advice for how to handle that conversation in a productive way that isn't like, “Well, you should know that's a myth.” How do we help people let go of that fear?
I think the unfortunate reality is that's internal work that they are eventually going to have to face, right? And some people get the opportunity in their lifetime to really sit with themselves and be like, “Whew, okay, I need to reflect on why I am the way I am.” And some people unfortunately don't. But the language that we tend to use around that—I always come from a place of curiosity, right? So like, “Oh, I wonder if that person was planning on bringing it to some of their neighbors,” or “I wonder if that person is only able to come to this fridge once or twice a month and they're just kind of grabbing what they need for their family.” Like, I wonder what else can be true about what you saw.
And what I always find really interesting about the way that people speak, because language obviously, you know, it tells you so much about a person, is that they see their interactions at the fridge as what the fridge must always be like. So what I say to people is like, come more, get more engaged into it so you can really see the beauty of it. And if you're somebody that has time, capacity, a vehicle, and you're feeling like you want first dibs, we have food rescues that need picked up, so join our work. And you take what you need to take too, and then you bring the rest to the fridge. Like, there's so much abundance in our community. You just need to experience firsthand what abundance in your community feels like. And you're only going to get that by engaging.
Yeah, that's really true. Can you talk a little bit more about the abundance of food in the community? I think we have an idea that hunger exists because there is a shortage of food and that's not true, is it?
I mean, we're all barely surviving under capitalism, right? It's a manmade issue. It's very easy if we had leaders that had political will to solve this. By addressing the housing crisis, by addressing inequitable wages. It’s a systemic issue. And we're all aware of that, and that's why it's not sustainable. Like the fridges are not the way that they're organizing now as this emergency response. It's not a sustainable way of organizing in the same way that food pantries are not sustainable. The only sustainable way that's gonna really uplift our community is, you know, solving these greater issues. And in order to do that, you really need to sit with the understanding that so many of our problems stem from white supremacy and capitalism and the patriarchy as a whole.
Those are such difficult conversations to have with people like Moe Bergman who have no idea when you say those words, no idea what you're talking about [laughs].
I'm curious when you say a food pantry is not sustainable, what do you mean by that?
We have incredible food pantries in our city and they are busting their butts. They are writing grants. They have folks that are there volunteering their time. If you talk to any food pantry executive director, they are barely making ends meet, right? Because they’re so dependent on grants, the nonprofit complex as a whole is really interesting to look at. But when you look at how it is affecting our community, like the actual people that are doing this kind of day-to-day organizing work, it's not sustainable for any of us. But that's how the system is systeming. That's us people that are called to do this work, like, I will do this for my community and we do this work for five years and then we're burnt out and we never want to look at a community fridge again, right?
And then it's the next group of people [who] come and do it. It's not about, like, we need to increase funding for food pantries. It's like, no, we need to dismantle white supremacy or really start reflecting on how that affects our communities. Truly. 'cause that word is so big, but it's such an umbrella term for everything that we're facing right now. But I think the first step is just being able to say that thing out loud in spaces where decisions are made.
Yeah. I'm imagining not every reader of this interview is going to see the connection between white supremacy—I'm with you, but can you connect those dots?
Yeah. So predating colonialism… [laughs]. When communities were abundant and food sharing was normal and folks lived so dependent and connected on each other, right? And then now we're living in this post-colonial world where everybody has this settler mentality of like, it is me in my family behind my house, and the food that I have is in my fridge. And that's for my family. We have completely become detached from our communities in a way that is not healthy, in a way that's not sustainable. And everything is connected, right? So when we think about mental illness and how many people that are experiencing mental illness don't have the support of their communities, and don't have sustainable housing options. Like everything is so connected to each other. And food insecurity is just kind of one of those symptoms of that.
I've noticed the semantic shift from hunger to food insecurity, and I noticed you used that term. I'm curious what the difference is for you. I feel like I'm gonna have a learning moment here.
Food insecurity. I don't know. I use the word food insecurity just ‘cause I personally don't have better language for it. But I really wanna encourage people to realize that food insecurity is such a spectrum. And food insecurity doesn't mean you open your fridge and there is literally nothing. Food insecurity can look like you don't have access to the right dietary options that you need. Food insecurity can look like “I don't have time to cook the meals that I wanna cook for my family.” Food insecurity can look like “I don't have access to like, culturally relevant food for my family.” It could look like “It's Friday and I have no energy or time to cook, but I also have no money to order takeout.” There's sometimes where I go to the grocery store and I have to be extra mindful, like, “Okay, I cannot spend over this amount of money 'cause I also need to pay my water bill.” Food insecurity looks so different for everyone. But I know that whether you know it or not, at some point in your life, if you are somebody that's living in this country, you have experienced food insecurity at some point in some space on that spectrum.
Okay! I'm persuaded that is a better term for the spectrum you're describing than saying hunger. You won me over.
I don't know if this is super connected but food brings us so much joy, right? It's that chronic stress of like, what's my next meal? Do I have the ingredients? Do I need to stop at a store? Do I have enough leftovers to last me for lunch and dinner tomorrow? Like, that constant thinking about what is my plan for food. That's a chronic thing for a lot of people. So it might not look like I'm opening my fridge and there's nothing, but it's that extra mindfulness of like, okay, I need to make sure that this food can last me until Friday.
Related to food bringing us joy and being part of our cultures, one thing that I noticed is that people project a lot when it comes to food. When the [Worcester Community Fridges] Facebook group was still active, there was definitely a type of participant who would be like, “We really need to be giving everyone a bouquet of raw, organic kale and that is what everyone should want out of this fridge. And if you're donating popsicles, you are a bad actor in this space.”
Yeah. In the same way that when you're grocery shopping for yourself, nobody wants to just have a fridge full of kale. You can't make a dinner out of that, right? I think it was like two years ago we started the CSA fundraiser and it's been great. And we worked with a bunch of different farms and we really hustled to fundraise 'cause we were like, everybody is going to want summer, fresh, beautiful produce. And that was true. And the amount of food, the amount of just like leafy veggies that I just saw wilt in the fridge that summer, I was like, okay, maybe folks don't want just kale.
So everything is about balance. And the folks that do the food rescues are very good about knowing what food is kind of more requested at what fridge. Like Union Hill serves a humongous population of children. There's always kids riding their bikes. There's kind of like a park down there, Brooks Street as well with Kendrick Field there. So whenever we have popsicles or candy or bags of snacks and chips and stuff we always kind of are mindful to bring it to those fridges. There's just something that's really beautiful about sharing good snacks, right? And sometimes snacks unfortunately is just not vegetables for a lot of people.
And there's also a barrier that I noticed and, and that was something I had to reflect on too after we did that big push for the fundraiser, there is a barrier that comes with having a ton of fresh veggies. Not everybody that comes to the fridges has a kitchen. Not everybody that comes to the fridges has time to research a recipe and to cook food from scratch like that. We have an awesome neighbor—her name is Kate—that sometimes if she sees an abundance of something in the fridge, she'll take it and she'll cook with it.
That's awesome.
She’s a phenomenal chef. So folks are always encouraged to do that. Like, if you go and you see a bunch of kale and you have a really delicious recipe for that, feel free to take it and turn it into something that people will be able to eat right away.
Yeah, I love that. I was really curious when the fridges went from, like, you can't cook and put it in the fridge to sure, yeah, cook something and label it and put it in the fridge. Can you tell me about that transition?
So that was almost a year worth of us doing… I'm gonna use the term “research” very lightly. It was us putting posts out on social media, us engaging in conversations with neighbors at the fridge, us as you know, a group of organizers, having conversations like, okay, do we have capacity to change this guideline that will inevitably kind of probably make more mess in the fridge? Because there's something just more messy about people opening food to see if it's yummy. I think it was at least nine months of us really thinking about it, moving slow, talking to neighbors right at the fridge. Like, what information do you need to have on a label? What would make food feel safe? Some people said, I wouldn't feel safe at all and that's fine.
But we had more people letting us know that ready-to-eat meals were something that they were looking for. And then sharing with us what information they wanted on those meals so that they felt comfortable taking it from the fridge. So yeah, that changed November 2022, I think. And then from there we were then able to start accepting food from caterers and restaurants. And we have a system now, if folks need labels, we can print and share labels with you. We have access to the label PDF right there if you want to use that. We have access to containers if people wanna hold on to containers. We have all of the resources to make food sharing in our community a little bit easier. But yeah, that was one of the things that I was so excited about 'cause as somebody that loves to cook. Any time I make a bunch of soup, it's like a humongous pot of it and I'm like, now I have somewhere to put it. Which is really beautiful.
If someone is looking to stop by a fridge, what should they know? What are all the ways people can help?
One of the things that we always say with the fridges [is that] it's deeper than food access, it's community building. It's participating in a system of care right in your backyard—so bring any talents, any passion that you have. We have folks that their main way of engaging with the fridges is by sharing their art. It's them decorating the fridge. We have this fantastic videographer, Alex O'Neil, who's working on putting a documentary together. And that's their way of sharing the story of the fridges. If you have time to do a food rescue, you can engage in the work that way. We have somebody that is like, my heart and soul. She lives in Main South and she is just full of life and just an incredibly gifted cleaner. She just is so thorough and she just takes all of the shelves out and she's there with her water and that's her thing. We'll never say no to ways that people wanna share their time and energy with the fridges.
Yeah. I'm curious how you've managed to also have your full-time job.
I'm really lucky in that I'm a teacher and a lot of the work that I do in my classroom blends really beautifully with the work that I'm doing in the community. Like in my classroom, that's a reflection of my community as well. So we're having conversations about participating, we're having conversations about power. We're having these really beautiful conversations that make me feel excited to then engage with the work because I'm like, now I have to walk the walk, right? And I'm also a mom. That has been, for me, this internal power source where I'm like, my kid is going to live in a community that feels better and safer than the one that I grew up in. And we're doing that by building a more beautiful community that is safer. So I'm very lucky that all of the different hats that I wear are kind of, you know, all working together.
I don't think it's that you're lucky. I think you're doing the work to make those connections.
Yeah. It's a lot of reflection. There's so much reflection that happens when you're engaged in this work. It's so much like, “Ooh, why am I noticing my shoulders tense when like this specific neighbor is coming by?” “What is going through my mind right now when I'm watching somebody fill their bag after I just put food in there?” “What is my attachment to power where I feel like I need to let that person know that they can only take one dozen eggs?” And a lot of it, from what I've learned, is [to] just sit and be quiet and observe and see what happens.
If you’d like to join Maria and the many others who keep the fridges going, you can learn more about how to participate on their website, which also features an explanation of the project’s values. Or just drop by any of the five fridge locations around the city.