Cooler Crops

Recycled Refrigerator Garden Beds

We are a “lettuce” roots organization working to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Thanks to a generous donation by Aunty Be and the support of the Ocean View Community Association we have started recycling refrigerators into gardens for our community.

Our mission is to build a network of volunteers to help people with refrigerator garden beds grow their own food and build healthy eating habits for the future.  

A recycled refrigerator garden decorated with colorful, childlike paintings of flowers and a bright yellow sun, sitting on the ground outdoors with soil and green plants in the background, alongside a green watering can. 
Hand-painted refrigerator garden. Not yet planted
Refrigerator Garden Sign-Up
Volunteer Sign-Up
Donate a Refrigerator

Our volunteers collect junk refrigerators, safely deconstruct using EPA guidelines, recycle unused parts, grow seedlings, and install refrigerator garden beds.

Cooler Crops teaches people how to grow food in their refrigerator garden beds, compost, harvest, and prepare delicious, healthy recipes with the vegetables they grow.

The refrigerator section of our gardens are planted with fruits and vegetables that can be grown year-round, and the freezer section is for composting. Our refrigerator gardens are designed to create a complete growing cycle that can produce fresh vegetables for decades.

A recycled refrigerator garden painted with brown, red, and black wavy stripes to look like lava is planted with organic garden vegetables, positioned on rocky volcanic landscape. 
Hand-painted refrigerator garden with a lava design. Fully planted.
Map of Hawaiian counties, including North Kohala, South Kohala, Hamakua, North Hilo, South Hilo, Puna, Ka'u, North Kona, South Kona, and Hawaii.

Our current service area is Kaʻū and South Kona districts of Hawai'i Island. 

A girl smiling and holding a large leafy green vegetable in a recycled refrigerator garden with various plants and a cat exploring a part of the garden bed
Person painting a large recycled refrigerator, that will become a garden, with a background of gardening and construction work.
A young woman kneels beside a recycled refrigerator garden filled with various leafy greens, harvesting some of the vegetables.
Three people working on a large white recycled refrigerator to turn it into a garden. Two women and a man are smiling and engaged in gardening or planting activity.
Two young girls are painting colorful handprint designs on a black refrigerator garden in an outdoor backyard with gravel ground, plants, and barbeque grills in the background.

Contact Us

Please contact us with any questions you may have!

If you would like a Refrigerator Garden, please fill out our form!