The day that I met Alanna Kieffer was spectacularly sunny with a gentle saline breeze—a rarity on the rainy Oregon coast. It was my first visit to Cannon Beach, but Kieffer appeared to be perfectly at home as she led me across the pale, soft sand to a cluster of craggy, dark rocks at the edge of the sea. As a coastal forager and educator, this stretch...

Every morning, Amish farmer Amos Miller, who lives on 75 acres of land in Lancaster County, PA., gets up early to milk 43 Jersey cows. He also raises beef cattle and 150 pigs that dine on whey and organic oats, as well as chickens that peck for insects among the greenery. His sons are the horsemen of the family, raising standardbreds for transportation...

Out of respect for privacy, Modern Farmer is withholding the last names of several users of the community fridge.  In a span of less than 10 minutes, no fewer than five people open the doors of the bright yellow community fridge and pantry just outside the Medlock Park neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia. Most come here searching for fresh food and produce,...

Hunger and food insecurity exist in every community in the US. Around 12.8 percent of US households experienced food insecurity in 2022.  That’s 17 million households experiencing food insecurity in a country that throws out more food than any other country in the world—120 billion pounds every year, equivalent to almost 40 percent of the entire US...

This photo essay is part of our series on Community Fridges. Photography by Emma Kazaryan. In February 2020, Thadeaus Umpster opened his first community fridge—right in front of the building where he lives in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. Since then, he’s helped many others find fridges and organize donations. He calls it an an anarchist network of community...

When Yvonne Martinez shops for her weekly allotment of food from the Skyview Elementary and Middle School Pantry in Anaheim, California, her box isn’t filled with nearly expired canned goods. Instead, it’s brimming with in-season fruits and vegetables that were harvested less than 25 miles away.  The selection has not only introduced Martinez to new...