Combating Food Insecurity, Brewster Library Installs Community Fridge

BREWSTER – Residents who need a hand putting food on the table now have another option. About three weeks ago the Brewster Ladies’ Library installed a “Community Refrigerator” on its main floor just inside the main entrance, and all are welcome to take fresh prepared and packaged food from it.

 “Our fridge operates on a simple principle: take what you need, share what you can,” a notice on the library’s website reads. “No questions asked.”

Library Director Brittany Taylor said many of the offerings in the community refrigerator come from The Family Table Collaborative, based in South Yarmouth, which, according to its website, offers “prepared meals and other ready-to enjoy healthy foods” to community refrigerators throughout the area, and from Brewster’s own community garden.

Other donations have come from local gardeners, with the proviso that their gifts are of fresh vegetables and fruit. “Basically, it’s no cut produce. Everything has to be uncut, fresh,” Taylor said. 

Another source will be the Brewster Health Department. 

 “The health department is in the loop with all the other organizations doing this,” Taylor said. “They have an ear out for what’s going on, who has extras, and where they can distribute them.” Finally, she added, the Food for Kids program will have a site at the library on Wednesday mornings this summer, with any leftover meals earmarked for the community fridge. 

Critically, according to Taylor, the free-to-anyone refrigerator is just inside the library’s main entrance, to the rear of the building at 1822 Main St. She said it’s as private as possible, allowing those who use it to duck in and out with some anonymity.

Ideally, she said, the refrigerator would have been placed in the entryway near where it ended up, thus joining the little free pantry that the Brewster Ladies’ Library installed there this past November, but it didn’t fit. 

 “The fridge, because of its size, there’s not a place in the entryway for it to go,” Taylor said. “But [refrigerator patrons] don’t have to go past anyone to get to it or ask if they can take something. It’s right there, and they can just go in and out.”

The little free pantry, like the community refrigerator installed with the support of the library board, offers free goods on a no-questions-asked basis, but unlike the fridge, there is no fresh food and produce. Rather, the bookcase-sized pantry is filled with nonperishable food, toiletries and essential household items.

Both the community refrigerator and little free pantry are accessible during regular library hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. In November through March, the library adds Sunday hours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., according to its website. The Family Table Collaborative delivers its meal donations on Tuesdays. Harwich also has a community fridge program, known as the People’s Fridge, located at the community center on Oak Street.

How did this all come about? Taylor is a 2014 Middlebury College grad who has served the past three years as the Brewster library’s director. But before then she spent the better part of a decade employed in Provincetown’s library, working her way up to become its assistant director. Provincetown is the home of a long-standing community refrigerator known as the “Crop Swap.”

Taylor said she and Brewster Health Department officials were also concerned in 2025 when cuts were threatened to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. Meanwhile, she had always had it in the back of her mind to introduce a community fridge in Brewster. 

When Barnstable County at the same point offered a grant to towns to fund such projects, they knew it was time to act. 

 “I had talked about the Crop Swap fridge with all the folks at town hall at some point. And so when a grant from the county came up, the health department let me know,” Taylor said. “And that came through, which was great, and that’s where the fridge came from.”

More support came from a grant from Eversource to fund the meals. Eversource has backed similar initiatives in other area towns, in some cases for multiple years, giving Taylor hope for the sustainability of an effort she believes is necessary, along with others — she pointed out the Brewster Baptist Church next to the Brewster library also has a food pantry, for example. 

 “I hope that food insecurity decreases, but it’s definitely been a long-term problem on the Cape,” she said.

According to the library website, donations of fully packaged, commercially produced foods or fresh, uncut produce are accepted for the fridge. Donations of unexpired, nonperishable food items and unopened toiletries are welcomed for the little free pantry.

Any person, organization, or business wishing to make regular donations should contact the library in advance to coordinate drop-off procedures by calling 508-896-3913.