Beacon orders removal from two locations

The City of Beacon and an anti-hunger organization headquartered in Fishkill are at odds after the city removed the nonprofit agency's two community refrigerators.

Fareground, which was founded in Beacon in 2012, collaborated with Binnacle Books and Beacon 4 Black Lives in 2020 to place a refrigerator at 321 Main St. Stocked four times weekly, the self-serve fridge was accessible 24/7 with the understanding that users "take what you need and leave what you can."

A second refrigerator, managed by Mutual Aid Beacon but routinely stocked by Fareground volunteers, was placed at the city's Recreation Center, at 23 West Center St., a year later. Food for the fridges was donated by the Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley, Beacon Natural Market, the Wappingers Falls Hannaford grocery, local farms and other sources.

Fareground also hosts 15 Tiny Food Pantries with dry goods in Beacon, Wappingers, Newburgh and other municipalities. Free marketplaces are held throughout the region, including at 9:30 a.m. on the last Friday of the month at Memorial Park in Beacon (except for November and December). A weekly Friday dinner program was launched at the First Presbyterian Church (50 Liberty St.) in January.

The community fridge program landed on the city's radar in June, when building maintenance forced Fareground to move the Main Street fridge. The organization asked to move the unit to Polhill Park but City Administrator Chris White and Nick Ward-Willis, the city attorney, said an unmonitored food source on municipal property could lead to liability issues.

Fareground temporarily moved the fridge to private property at 23 Cliff St. There, White said this week, neighbors complained, which led Building Inspector Bryan Murphy to investigate.

Murphy found that the fridge violated two city laws - one prohibiting the storage of numerous items, including appliances, auto body parts, animal shelters, trampolines and swing sets, in the front or side yard of a lot or on an open front porch; and another meant to protect children from abandoned refrigerators or other appliances with tight-fitting doors.

After Murphy's review, White asked Fareground to remove the Recreation Center fridge by the end of October, but when the administrator visited the site on Sept. 24, he said during Monday's (Oct. 6) City Council meeting, he found "squalid conditions" and had the appliance removed immediately.

White showed council members photos of dirt and mold, rotten and expired food, including a tray of pasta with an Aug. 1 date written on the lid. He also shared pictures Recreation Department staff said had been taken over the last 18 months of a tattoo machine with ink and needles, bags of prescription medication, a bedside urinal and an open box of female condoms that had been left at the site.

"You're allowing anybody, at any time, to put anything in this fridge," White said. "There wasn't a bit of food in there that was suitable for human consumption."

He said the city is willing to discuss partnering with Fareground on an alternative food distribution model that is "cognizant and respects food safety," but unregulated community refrigerators are too risky.

Several community members criticized White on Monday for taking what they said was unnecessarily aggressive action. "I don't care why it was removed," said KK Naimool. "I care about how it was removed, and we need something to fill that gap."

Kara Dean-Assael, a co-founder of Fareground, emailed White, Mayor Lee Kyriacou and council members Monday night to dispute the city administrator's report. She argued that White had removed the refrigerator without warning and "weaponized" photos that city staff had hoarded of unclean conditions.

She asked the council to reconsider the city code, which "is really about people leaving things that look 'junky' on front and side yards. This is not what community fridges are. They are community anti-hunger resources that are regularl...