For years, community giving in Maplewood has followed a simple, comfortable routine: if you had extra cans sitting in your pantry, you drove down to the outdoor Community Fridge on Springfield Avenue and dropped them on a shelf. It was an act of goodwill, but for the neighbors who had relied on the Fridge, it created a persistent unpredictability—a constant gamble between overflowing shelves and empty ones.
“We started the program in 2021,” said Maplewood Health Officer Candice Davenport. “And then just observing it over the last year, we saw that while people were donating, it was kind of like a feast or famine kind of thing. We saw people waiting out there all day, hoping that someone would donate, and then they would be able to take some food. But it was not a fair and equitable distribution of food.”
With the program’s relocation to the Maplewood Health Department and Community Support Center at 129 Boyden Avenue, Township leaders are asking residents to think differently about how they give. The days of random drop-offs are officially over, making way for a thoughtful approach that puts recipients’ dignity ahead of donor convenience, Davenport said.
Under the new model, visitors no longer stand outside (sometimes in heatwaves or snowstorms) hoping for random deliveries. Instead, commercial refrigeration, organized pantry tables, and a full kitchen allow residents to walk through a comfortable indoor space and choose groceries tailored to their family’s actual needs, she explained.
Organized food displays and refrigeration units at 129 Boyden Avenue give residents full agency to choose their own groceries. (Photos by Kate McManus)
Building that kind of reliability means shifting community habits from spontaneous drop-offs to a coordinated schedule.
“We definitely want people to still donate, and we have a process of donating,” Davenport said. “They have to coordinate it with UCC
[United Community Corporation], and then they can drop donations off on Mondays and Thursdays, or UCC can pick it up from them if it’s more convenient.”
That coordination allows the center to match intake directly with real-time demand for the 30-40 households visiting on distribution days.
“We want to keep the food organized and make sure that we have enough for everyone, and don’t duplicate efforts,” Davenport said.
The transition indoors has also allowed the center to give more access to the public beyond nutritional health. Inside the facility is a dedicated Book Hub offering free children’s and young adult literature for visiting families to take home.
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The on-site Book Hub allows children access to free learning. (Photo by Kate McManus)
By integrating literacy resources into weekly grocery visits, the Hub ensures that kids leave with both nourishing meals and easy access to books.
Beyond logistics and reading resources, the structured indoor space has yielded an unexpected social benefit: converting an isolated errand into a neighborhood gathering point.
“Everyone is very grateful, and we get to see different types of people,” Davenport observed. “They form their own community. They come in here, and they say hi to each other….We see young families, we see elderly people who live alone, we see caregivers of elderly parents who are here…because food is hard to come by nowadays.”
As economic pressures continue to hit local families, the center’s expansion shows that addressing hunger takes real coordination, not just good intentions, Davenport said. For Maplewood moving indoors is more than a change of space—it’s a commitment to meeting neighbors with the care they deserve.
The United Community Corporation (UCC) food truck facilitates structured pickup and drop-off schedules, replacing informal donations with reliable supply logistics. (Photo by Kate McManus)
