8th grade students open community fridge in Marysville after recognizing need
MARYSVILLE – A new community fridge is now open inside the Habitat for Humanity in Marysville. The Blue Zones Project Yuba Sutter helped make their youngest partners' vision come true to help those in need.
The project is one year in the making. A couple of very determined 8th-grade students made the community fridge come to life after recognizing a need for it.
"I thought it was such an amazing idea, such an effective way to help our community," said one of the community fridge creators, Mia Bumpus.
Bumpus joins her friend Addalie Burns in the big reveal of their community fridge after a trip to New York City where Burns saw people using them. She wanted to bring that same idea back home to the Yuba-Sutter area.
"While I was doing my research, I noticed that other places with community fridges, it's very walkable. So we thought let's try to find somebody that can help us," said Burns, the creator of the community fridge.
With it being the first of its kind in the area, they wanted a good central location that would give the most access to the most people. They brought their research in front of the Blue Zones Project Yuba Sutter for some guidance.
"And I said I think we can make this happen," said the executive director of the Blue Zones Project Yuba Sutter Marni Sanders.
Blue Zones Project has an area of focus that connects healthy food with everyone in the community and this initiative lines up with that.
With perseverance and hard work, the students partnered with Blue Zones, the Yuba-Sutter Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity provided the fridge and the space for it.
"Our next steps are to find people that will come and adopt the fridge for a month. They'll come in and make sure it's being stocked and being cleaned out," said Burns.
The community fridge is a community effort. But the masterminds say they'll be stopping by every two weeks to make sure things are running smoothly.
"It restores my sense in humanity, in the next generation. We have some really exceptional young people," said Sanders.
"As of right now it's located in Habitat for Humanity, but we are hoping to expand in different locations as well," said Bumpus, "an idea that's finally a reality."
The fridge will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for anyone who needs it.
The artwork on the fridge was done by another student named Lucas.
If you're interested in donating or adopting the fridge for a month, you can coordinate with Blue Zones Project Yuba-Sutter.
