VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Local community fridge opens second location to help prepare for SNAP cut offs
Matt Sheremeta: When Lis Webber moved from Syracuse to New York City to work in social media, she desired more purpose. Thats when she found community fridges.
Lis Webber: That fridge network is called one love community fridge, and that’s really what sparked everything
Sheremeta: That spark brought her back home to run the Syracuse Community Fridge, open 24/7 at All Saints Church. Their banner fit seamlessly into Webber’s mission. To combat food insecurity with fresh, free food and without any judgment. According to the U.S. Census, nearly 70,000 people in Onondaga County receive SNAP benefits. The cutoff could make produce especially hard to come by.
Webber: When you think of a plate of food, you’re supposed to have all the colors, it’s supposed to be all these things. How are you going to achieve that if one, there is no place to get it and two, if there were a place to get it, the prices are astronomical.
Sheremeta: The community fridge is just one resource available for anybody who needs fresh, free food. But it wouldn’t exist without the people who help keep it stocked.
Webber: It is not a solo effort. I am a small part that by doing what I do, I am giving people the opportunity to share their abundance to help this community
Sheremeta: Webber says partners, volunteers and donors have been quick to help.
Webber: This is an incredibly dark time but the community action is such a bright light in that
Sheremeta: The fridge has one more ingredient.
Webber: People say that you cook with a secret ingredient of love and that you can taste that. I hope that myself and my volunteers and all of our partners put a little bit of love in that fridge, and the participants I hope can feel that.
Sheremeta: Webber is still spreading that ingredient. She recently planted another fridge in the Mundy Branch Library to continue to fulfill the purpose that brought her back home. From the city that never sleeps, to make sure in her city, everybody eats. In Syracuse, Matt Sheremeta, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Lis Webber has had her roots planted in Syracuse her whole life. She went to school at Christian Brother’s Academy, studied higher education at Newhouse and recently returned home from New York City where she worked in social media. While in the “Big Apple,” Webber began to desire more of a purpose. That’s where she found food fridges. A free and non-discriminatory resource for fresh produce, dairy and even cooked meals.
Webber volunteered with a network of fridges called “One Love.” She said she saw the proof of concept working in New York and wanted to bring her knowledge back home. She planted her first fridge at All Saints Parish Roman Catholic Church on Mar. 20, 2025. Webber planted her second fridge at Mundy Library Oct. 30, starting her own network of fridges in her hometown.
“There is definitely fulfillment, but the work isn’t finished,” Webber said.
She feels her work is only getting started, and with USDA announcing the cut off of federal funding of SNAP, the nations food stamp program, on Nov. 1, she feels her job in the community is even more important.
“The need is massive, and the need was massive before SNAP was cut off,” Webber said.
According to the U.S. Census, Onondaga County is home to nearly 70,000 residents who receive SNAP benefits. Webber said the community has come together to help their neighbors in need.
“This is an incredibly dark time and the community action has been such a bright light,” Webber said. “We’ve have over ten unique donations in the last week alone. Keep sharing your abundance, help how you can. Whether that’s time, food, or money.”
The community involvement has helped enough to allow Webber to grow a partnership web of local businesses, other non-profits and farmers. The community fridge partners with the Interfaith Community Collective, Syracuse Banana, Brady Farm, the Kitchen Literacy Project and more.
“It is not a solo effort. I am a small part and by doing what I do, I am giving people the opportunity to help the community,” Webber said.
Both locations are currently open and trying to stay stocked enough to counter an increase in foot traffic, which Webber said has already nearly doubled in the last week, and could spike even higher once the cut offs are in effect. The All Saints location is open 24/7 and the Mundy location is open during library hours.
For more information, visit: https://www.syracusecommunityfridge.org/