Eliot School Students Fill the Community Fridge at  NEW Health Charlestown

Special to the Regional Review

Students at the Eliot School recently spent giving back to those in need. On November 13 and 14, Roughly 80 third and fourth grad­ers filled the community fridge at NEW Health Charlestown. The school donated enough food to fill the fridge four times.

The Community Fridge is locat­ed just outside the Charlestown health center and is open at all times, stocked with free, healthy food for everyone in need. Throughout the month of November, the NEW Health Food Insecurity Program is initiating another #fillthefridge campaign to drive donations and combat food insecurity. NEW Health is ask­ing residents to fill the fridge one day, post it on social media with #fillthefridge, tag @newhealth­boston and a friend to keep the chain going. If anyone is unable to donate food, they can consid­er making a monetary donation online.

NEW Health Public Affairs Coordinator Danny Coakley edu­cated the students on the general issue surrounding food insecurity in the neighborhood. More stu­dents are expected to fill the fridge in the coming weeks.

Acceptable Community Fridge food donations include: whole fruits and vegetables, commer­cially packaged refrigerated foods (eggs, milk, cheese, butter, torti­llas, bread, bagged salad, etc.), and commercially packaged frozen foods (vegetables, fruits, prepared meals, etc.).

NEW Health’s Food Insecurity Program, serving both its North End and Charlestown sites, was established in 2016. NEW Health is Charlestown’s first full-service health center and is committed to improving the quality of health and life for its over 5,000 patients in the neighborhood. The health center continues to increase their food insecurity efforts to help fam­ilies in need with the help of the community.

The Charlestown site is located at 15 Tufts Street.