A seventh-grade Brownsville student is making sure no one in her neighborhood goes hungry by partnering with her middle school to put up a new community fridge.  

The Brownsville Collaborative Middle School helped make seventh grader Alisha Antonetti’s thoughts turn into action.  

“Whenever I’m walking home or back to home, I see a bunch of homeless people and I feed so, so bad for them,” said Antonetti. “I know the majority of those homeless people; they really don’t know where or when their next meal is going to be.” 

Antonetti lives in Brownsville and wants to make sure that her neighbors have access to healthy food consistently. 

“Brownsville is a food desert,” said Nyesha Shade, founding assistant principal at Brownsville Collaborative Middle School. “If you take a look at our community, we have liquor stores and Chinese restaurants. You can’t find nothing health around here.” 

After Antonetti sent an email to the school’s superintendent, she was on a mission to help supply healthy foods to the block of Glenmore Avenue.  

“She recognizes it wasn’t just about her, it wasn’t just about the school,” said Dr. Khalek Kirkland, superintendent of Community School District 23. “It was really about the entire Brownsville community, which is in desperate need of things like this.” 

Fire hundred dollars later, the community fridge was bought, and it’s already full. The school’s hydroponic farm will help consistently stock this community fridge with their home-grown vegetables, hot meals from the school cafeteria, and donations from community partners three times a week.