Buddy System MIA

I am applying for The Elevate Prize to enhance my work with Buddy System MIA, a young fast-growing nonprofit in Miami helping to combat food insecurity by creating unique and innovative ways to engage our community and empower neighbors to support neighbors. Our Community Fridge Initiative has changed the landscape of food injustice in Miami, supporting thousands of people in under-represented communities across Miami-Dade County with free, healthy food.

As a recipient of the Elevate Prize, we hope to continue to look beyond the traditional avenues of food assistance- funding programs and spaces that allow community ownership and empowerment such as an immersive art food pantry and a community art garden. Founded by a group of artists, my organization is passionate about the merging of art and social justice. We look forward to continuing to explore the ways in which these worlds can intersect - pursuing projects and avenues that allow for art and activism to educate, inspire, and heal. 

At Buddy System, we believe food is a right and no person or family should have to prove their need. We hope that our grassroot approach will continue to engage communities and destigmatize the shame of receiving help.

When the pandemic hit, I was in the middle of my eighth season as a professional dancer with the Miami City Ballet. With stages shut down and unexpectedly furloughed for months on end, I met with some fellows peers and activists and together started the “Buddy System”- a program delivering food to people who were currently homebound. We soon became inundated with requests- often from elderly or immunocompromised people who were also experiencing severe financial hardships. We soon organized our own large-scale food drives. These grew in size with over 90 volunteers delivering to 250 homebound households weekly with free groceries throughout the summer of 2020. 

As we continued to grow, we wanted to find a more innovative way to help feed those in need. This is why we established our Community Fridge Initiative. By April 1st, 2021 we established ten community Fridges in Miami-Dade County. These fridges exist in food deserts with a simple message: leave what you can, take what you need. Founded by a ballet dancer, filmmaker, and community organizer, we hope to use our unique viewpoints to continue to use art to destigmatize the process of receiving help.

In the summer of 2020, 18.6% of residents in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties reported that they “sometimes or often” did not have enough to eat. At the time, that was the highest percentage in the nation. Studies have predicted that food insecurity has doubled with the onset of COVID-19 and that specifically “Floridians are experiencing 19.6 million weekly missing meals, approximately 2.7 million of which are a result of COVID-19.” 

Buddy System serves areas in South Florida experiencing structural poverty. Our current fridges are located in Overtown, Richmond Heights, Coconut Grove, Wynwood, Homestead, Hialeah, Little Havana, and Little Haiti. These locations are food deserts; urban areas in which it is difficult to buy affordable or quality fresh food.

At Buddy System, we believe access to free, healthy food is a right.  We launched our Community Fridge Initiative to help feed thousands of Floridians and engage local communities. All ten fridges are painted by local Miami artists bringing beauty and inspiration to each community. This art allows the community to take pride and ownership of their unique fridge. Simultaneously, these fridges help combat excess food waste, collecting food that would otherwise go bad and repurposing it into the fridge.

At Buddy System, we pride ourselves on working with people and organizations from within the community to meet the unique needs of each population. Through partnerships with grocery stores and food rescue organizations, we are able to repurpose thousands of pounds of food weekly that would otherwise be thrown out. We have a network of over 1000 local volunteers that monitor the fridges which enable us to meet the more nuanced needs of the local populations we serve. Often this means adapting the food we provide- for example, pre-made meals in areas with people experiencing homelessness or food unique to the cultural makeup of the area.

We want to expand our reach - opening an immersive art food pantry in March 2022. This food pantry will allow the community to be able to drop off food and there will be no qualifying factors to receive. The pantry will also serve as a rotating art installation where we will commission local Miami artists. The space will seamlessly incorporate fridges, pantry space, and interactive, innovative art that will help to inspire and heal. The pantry may also serve as a performance space- allowing for all types of artists to showcase their work.

With the success of our Community Fridge Initiative, we have nourished communities through food and art. Each of our ten fridges serve as anchors in their community to not only provide food but also resources and inspiration. For example, we recently partnered with a poetry organization and attached locally written poems to hundreds of food items in each fridge. We believe that art can inspire dialogue and empathy. We want to bring light to the immense structural inequalities surrounding South Florida and the country at large. We hope to inspire conversations on everything from community activism, encouraging locals to get involved, to larger structural policy issues. With our immersive art food pantry, we plan on highlighting marginalized artists who tell the often overlooked stories of the communities they represent. Many of these Miami artists have not had access to the same resources as their more privileged peers. We hope that individuals receiving food support will feel a direct connection with these accessible works of art. We also hope to educate visitors and bring awareness to a variety of issues contributing to rampant food insecurity in our country. We believe social services should not only provide but uplift and inspire.