Celebrating Two Years of the Newton Community freedge

The Newton Community freedge started as just a dream among board members trying to figure out how to expand the reach of the Newton Food Pantry, especially to those impacted by the pandemic. Now, it has been a reality for two years! 

As of 2023, on average 15 shoppers per hour visit the freedge for supplemental food and personal care items. This is a 33% increase since January 2022. 

Keeping the freedge up and running would be impossible without our amazing host, Mark Levine, owner of Central Drapery & Dry Cleaning. He accommodates a ton of activity in his small parking lot — people and cars streaming in and out all day long! 

The freedge depends on our army of exceptional volunteers, partners, donors and community members whose constant stream of donations allows this effort to be sustainable. It truly is a community effort. More than 150 volunteers from 13 local Newton community and religious organizations monitor, clean and stock the freedge, along with 24 team captains that lead the charge. We are also lucky to have the help of over 50 business partners, ranging from restaurants to bakeries to markets to nonprofits, who donate each week. 

One of the people who has been invaluable in keeping the freedge running smoothly is our freedge Volunteer Coordinator, Ephraim Ezekiel. A recent retiree, Ephraim has devoted his free time to volunteer work and was also recently elected as a new Newton Food Pantry board member.

As the freedge Volunteer Coordinator, he is in charge of coordinating the work for over a dozen volunteer teams who go to our business partners to pick up food and deliver it to the freedge. But if any challenge occurs, he is always ready to drop what he is doing and come help. Even when he’s in Florida for the winter, Ephraim finds the time to get on the phone and make sure everything is running smoothly at the freedge.

In addition to the tireless efforts of our partners, volunteers and neighbors, the freedge requires financial support. The Newton Food Pantry spends over $1,000 per week to support the twice-daily restocking of purchased staples like milk, eggs, and yogurt. This does not include the produce, bread and other products that the Newton Food Pantry provides twice daily as well. Electricity, trash removal and snow removal are also expenses incurred to run the freedge. 

We are so thrilled the freedge has been available to our community for two years now. And, we are grateful for the commitment and care of our hardworking volunteers, business partners, donors and local community members for making these last two years such a great success. Check out our recap video for lots of smiles over the past year.

We look forward to many more successful years operating the freedge and invite all who want to get involved to contact our Volunteer Coordinator at newtoncommunityfreedge@gmail.com. If you are interested in supporting the freedge financially, please consider making a financial donation today.