Jones, 35, a Carol City native, has taken on the vast problem of food insecurity in South Florida in a direct, targeted and grassroots way: She set up a community refrigerator.

Very simply, these community fridges are set up in public areas where anyone from the neighborhood can take food or donate food.

Hers is one of two community fridges set up in Miami-Dade County in the last two weeks and they aim not to be the last as locals look for ways to address hunger made worse in their communities by joblessness as COVID-19 sweeps across the country. Both of the fridges sit near food deserts — low-income areas, where the closest source of fresh food, like a grocery store, is at least half a mile away.

More than one in seven South Florida households say they sometimes do not have enough to eat, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in July. It was the highest rate in the country, ahead of Houston and New York.

Jones placed a plain beige kitchen refrigerator outside of the Roots Collective print shop at 5505 NW Seventh Ave., with a sign that reads “Take what you need, donate what you don’t.” A pack of plastic gloves is taped to the front.

Inside is a bounty: milk, cereal, bread, lunch meat, fruit cups, cheese, granola bars, tuna, canned soup in the refrigerator; quartered chicken, chunks of pork, green beans and frozen sausage-and-egg breakfast sandwiches in the freezer.