07/10/2022
The Fehr Avenue farm in the upper State Street neighborhood of Schenectady includes garden beds, bees and egg-laying chickens, as well as a community herb garden where medicinal plants are grown.
Now, it also has a refrigerator in a retrofitted pavilion that can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to make food readily available to residents and passersby in the neighborhood.
The fridge is the product of an exciting collaboration between SiCM, The Schenectady Foundation and Free Food Fridge Albany.
Because the Fehr Avenue farm lacked electricity, a creative plan to power the refrigerator had to be devised. Two solar panels charge a battery that connects to the refrigerator.
The purchase of the panels was funded by The Schenectady Foundation through a $10,000 grant to Schenectady Community Ministries.
โItโs a modest investment to do something really innovative and beautiful,” said Robert Carreau, executive director of The Schenectady Foundation, who noted that the project was a perfect fit for the Foundation, which has made improving community access to healthy and nutritious food a top priority. Overall, the Foundation has invested approximately $500,000 in food-related projects in the past year.
For more on this project, please go to the Schenectady Foundation blog.
Image: ๐๐ฆ๐ท. ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ขรฑรณ๐ฏ-๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ๐ด, ๐ฆ๐น๐ฆ๐ค๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด (๐๐ช๐๐); ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฉ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ค๐ป๐บ๐ฌ, ๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐๐ณ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ฎ๐ด; ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ฅ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ญ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ-๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ.
