A community refrigerator outside a Main Street shop in Saugerties softly launched this week, offering a simple premise: take food if you need it, leave food if you can.
The 24/7 fridge sits outside Enoki at 190 Main St., where owners Shirley Lim, 29, and Tommy Lam, 30, hope it will become a community-run resource that helps address food insecurity, cuts down on waste, and makes free food available without paperwork, appointments, or questions.
Inspired in part by community fridge projects in Catskill, Hudson, and the Capital District, the Saugerties hub will add to a network of community fridges in Ulster County, where close to a third of residents are food insecure, according to a 2025 Cost of Living report by the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz.
The report on food insecurity in the four-county region that includes Ulster County found that 62% of households were food secure, while 20% had low food security and 18% had very low food security. The report also found that 28% of households relied on some form of nutrition or public assistance.
For Lim and Lam, founders of Enoki, a shop known for foraged vintage finds and Asian pantry staples, the fridge is also a practical response to a problem they know firsthand: how to reduce waste while helping address local food insecurity and strengthen community ties.
“At Enoki, selling vintage items keeps us afloat but our passion also lies in growing the produce and pantry section of our shop and we learned last year that we need a good solution to deal with unsold items, to prevent them from going to waste,” Lim said. “It will be great to have a community fridge right here to put some of our Asian vegetables for example. Preventing waste has to do with our parents being immigrants,” she added.
In the United States, an estimated 30% to 40% of the food supply goes to waste, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Community fridges, sometimes called “freedges,” are typically stocked by residents, businesses, and volunteers, then left open for anyone to use at any time. The model grew rapidly during the pandemic as mutual aid networks expanded in New York City and elsewhere. Organizations in the movement describe the fridges as a way to reduce food waste, increase access to healthy food, and strengthen neighborhoods.
The Saugerties fridge is in a covered, well-lit area along the side of the store and can be reached by ramp. People can donate food that they feel comfortable serving to friends and family. Food must be fresh and properly stored.
“This week’s launch is just phase one,” Lam said. “We want it to be welcoming in a way that anyone will feel like they can access it.”
Lim and Lam said securing a stable location and dealing with insurance questions can be among the biggest barriers to getting a community fridge off the ground. They said they were glad to be able to use Enoki’s exterior space for the project.
The couple, who are also raising their toddler, Enoki, and balancing other jobs alongside the shop, said they want the fridge to grow beyond its founders.
“The idea of community in the USA is hard to grasp in such an individualistic society. We might be a leader of the pack at the moment but the vision is for this to be community owned,” Lim said.
That process has already begun. Social media posts about the launch have drawn interest from residents and local businesses, the founders said, and a WhatsApp thread has been set up for people who want to help with stocking, sorting, outreach, and partnerships.
Next week, the refrigerator is set to be painted by Saugerties artist Jen Tong.
“We look forward to working with our community to make the fridge a vibrant, colorful hub, very different and separate from our store,” Lam said.
For updates, organizers have directed residents to the project’s Instagram account.
Chana Widawski is a contributing reporter. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com