The fridge aims to help residents facing food insecurity, an urgent need in some spots in Wilmington.
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Since 2019, the group Black Mothers in Power has been working to uplift Black women in Wilmington, offering services that range from maternal health support to advocacy and education.
Over time, the organization expanded to offer services like a computer lab, postpartum support groups, housing and transportation. As it continued to support families, the group identified another pressing issue: food insecurity. Its latest effort is a community fridge, a place where residents facing food insecurity can access free, fresh food.
"We have a lot of families who come to us for assistance, right? A lot of their barriers for [things] like health care are related to things that don't have anything to do with health care, like transportation, housing, access to food and different things like that," she said. "Families were coming to us like, 'We're hungry.'"
Advocating for health care equity has always been at the forefront of Darby's mission. She is also a member of Wilmington City Council, representing District 2 on the north side of Wilmington. As a mother of three daughters, she said her personal experience has heightened her awareness of the specific challenges faced by Black and brown mothers.
"We established the organization because there were disparity rates for Black women when it came to maternal care," Darby said. "Black women and Black babies are two to three times more likely to die or have negative health outcomes. That's why we came into existence, we started doing doula training programs, focusing on opening up a birth center [and training] midwives."
She added, "It's all intersected and connected, so that's why we ended up doing the community fridge, realizing that [there] was a need in the community."