After the loss of the neighborhood Pick ‘n Save, local organizers knew that something needed to be done. Tricklebee Café, One MKE and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges stepped up to fill that void by creating a community-powered fridge, which opened Wednesday. Their goal was to help residents in their community have access to fresh produce and healthy food options.

Christie Melby-Gibbons, Maddy Day and Melody McCurtis talk about the need for the community fridge after the closing of the neighborhood Pick n’ Save. The Metcalfe Park community-powered fridge was created by a collaboration between Tricklebee Café, One MKE and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges.

The community-powered fridge sits full with fresh vegetables. The food in the fridge comes from donations from the community, farmers or local organizations.

Fresh produce sits in the community-powered fridge. Anyone in need of food can grab something to eat during regular operating hours at Tricklebee Café, 4424 W. North Ave.

Sharaka Berry, manager at Food for Health, puts fresh vegetables into the community-powered fridge.

Michael Orlowski applauds after the community-powered fridge is opened at Tricklebee Café.

Dr. Jennifer Potts celebrates the opening the community-powered fridge.

Nicole Shaver, a community outreach coordinator One MKE, organizes vegetables before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the community-powered fridge at Tricklebee Café.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Can you help NNS hit 100?

❤️ Become a new donor

On Nov. 1, we kicked off our biggest and most important fundraiser of the year. Our goal is to raise $15,000 before midnight on Dec. 31, a milestone that will help ensure that we start 2026 on a solid foundation.

On top of that, if we add 100 new donors before midnight on Dec. 31, we will win an extra $2,000 bonus from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Help NNS get a bonus

That's not all! We also have matching funds.

Thanks to the NewsMatch program and the generosity of Wisconsin Watch board member Barbara Johnson, the first $5,000 we raise will be triple-matched.

Here’s how a triple match works: One-time gifts will be tripled, so if you make a one-time gift of $5, NNS will receive $15. Recurring gifts will be matched at 24 times the monthly pledge, so if you set up a $10 monthly donation, NNS will receive $240.

Set up a monthly donation

Make a one-time gift

Learn about other ways to give

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site.

*** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. ***

You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

Credit should be given, in this format: “By Ron Smith, Wisconsin Watch”
Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Milwaukee, Wis.” instead of “Milwaukee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
If published online, you must include the links and link to milwaukeenns.org
If you share the story on social media, please mention @milwaukeenns (Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
Don’t extract, store or resell Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content as a database.
Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.
If we send you a request to change or remove Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org.

Community-powered fridge opens at Tricklebee Café

by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
September 17, 2025

<h1>Community-powered fridge opens at Tricklebee Café</h1>
<p class="byline">by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service <br />September 17, 2025</p>

<p>After the loss of the neighborhood <a href="https://milwaukeenns.org/2025/07/16/the-only-grocery-store-in-the-neighborhood-community-weighs-in-on-pick-n-save-closing/">Pick 'n Save</a>, local organizers knew that something needed to be done. Tricklebee Café, One MKE and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges stepped up to fill that void by creating a community-powered fridge, which opened Wednesday. Their goal was to help residents in their community have access to fresh produce and healthy food options.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0240-1024x681.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129958" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Christie Melby-Gibbons, Maddy Day and Melody McCurtis talk about the need for the community fridge after the closing of the neighborhood Pick n' Save. The Metcalfe Park community-powered fridge was created by a collaboration between Tricklebee Café, One MKE and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges.</figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide">
<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:33.33%">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0390-681x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129962" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The community-powered fridge sits full with fresh vegetables. The food in the fridge comes from donations from the community, farmers or local organizations. </figcaption></figure>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:66.66%">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0397-1024x681.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129963" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Fresh produce sits in the community-powered fridge. Anyone in need of food can grab something to eat during regular operating hours at Tricklebee Café, 4424 W. North Ave.</figcaption></figure>
</p></div>
</p></div>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0315-1024x681.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129960" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sharaka Berry, manager at Food for Health, puts fresh vegetables into the community-powered fridge.</figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0309-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129966" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Michael Orlowski applauds after the community-powered fridge is opened at Tricklebee Café.</figcaption></figure>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-column">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_0301-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129965" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dr. Jennifer Potts celebrates the opening the community-powered fridge.</figcaption></figure>
</p></div>
</p></div>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DSC_6901-1024x684.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-129969" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Nicole Shaver, a community outreach coordinator One MKE, organizes vegetables before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the community-powered fridge at Tricklebee Café.</figcaption></figure>
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />
<p><em>Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.catchlight.io/local"><em>CatchLight Local&nbsp;</em></a><em>and&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.reportforamerica.org/"><em>Report for America</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2025/09/17/community-powered-fridge-opens-at-tricklebee-cafe-in-milwaukee/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org&quot;&gt;Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-NNS-Favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p>
&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=129970&amp;amp;ga4=G-HGM4XK3QCM&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2025/09/17/community-powered-fridge-opens-at-tricklebee-cafe-in-milwaukee/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/milwaukeenns.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Community-powered fridge opens at Tricklebee Café

Related

Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight LocalPhotographer

Contact

Hey neighbor, let's stay in touch!

Related

Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight LocalPhotographer