When the community feeds the neighborhood
In Saint-Henri, the Community fridge is a point of convergence whose popularity could be the envy of any establishment. In a place that many call a food desert, and where Gentrification is gaining ground, residents are doing their part to help each other out. For the past few weeks, the shared refrigerator has taken center stage in its new location, in its custom-built wooden shed. During the day, visitors are welcomed joyfully by the cries of children from the neighboring elementary school. “I think there is a real need in Saint-Henri; there is a lot of food insecurity,” says Cécile Lars, a volunteer with the community fridge.
In Quebec, 17% of households live in a situation of food insecurity. “The community fridge is for everyone,” insists Ms. Lars. “It's designed so that anyone, at any hour, can drop off or take food freely,” says the woman who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years. Whether it's families who need a helping hand, local children stopping by for a snack, businesses that leave their unsold items or citizens who have surpluses, everyone uses them. For Ms. Lars, such an initiative goes beyond judgments and stereotypes. “It is not because you are poor, indigent, in poverty or on the streets: it is about food, and it must be shared and donated.
If we have more, it must end up in one mouth,” she believes. One thing is certain: everything goes away quickly, whereas every week, hundreds of people open the fridge door and the adjoining pantry. “When the fridge is full, after 3 hours it is empty. We're not putting in enough, we need more,” says Ms. Lars. It was by chance that Ahmed Chebbi came across the fridge the first time, very close to home. He believed that someone had forgotten him there, and his surprise was total when he opened the door. Mr. Chebbi, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2018, is among those who are involved in the community fridge initiative. “Sometimes people don't have the opportunity to go there, so I take them and bring them,” he explains, citing the difficulties that people in the neighborhood have in eating due to COVID-19 and rising food prices.
According to the Canadian Food Price Report, Canadian households spent an average of $695 more on groceries in 2021. This year, food prices rose by an average of 3.8%, the largest in 12 years, and researchers expect a further increase of 5% to 7% in 2022.
The idea of sharing
Eight years ago, while recovering, Darren Gerbrandt decided to implement his self-service refrigerator idea. “I had time, I had no excuses left. I wanted to make a community refrigerator for a long time. I had already been involved in a similar project in Winnipeg in the 1990s,” he told us over the phone. This is how he launched the first initiative of this kind in Montreal, making a refrigerator available to everyone in the courtyard of the building where he lives. “A month later, I was already making Christmas meals. And it's still growing.
Today, more and more fridges are appearing in the city.” Although he passed on the torch, he said he could not be happier to see the project grow, some seven years later.
“Obtaining resources and finding a location are the two most difficult things to start such a project,” says the founder, for whom organizational challenges were numerous. He remembers the happy moments. “A young person already said to me: 'Thank you so much, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have eaten yogurt today, '” he said, adding that he shed a tear after this testimony.
“It was a nice moment. I was walking down the street with my punk friends and the police stopped to say thank you.”
From collaboration to the community
“With this kind of business, you have a lot to do with the 'not in my courtyard'”, explains Cécile Lars, sitting firmly in front of the fridge, coffee in hand. If people are in favor of such a project, they often don't want one close to home. Ms. Lars explains that, as the fridge is intended for everyone, many people dislike its customers. The Saint-Henri fridge had several locations, before ending up in the alley, connected to the home of one of the volunteers. It needs electricity, but also “the agreement and the enthusiastic participation of people,” as Ms. Lars says. “Group efforts are always difficult. But in Saint-Henri, there is a great spirit of community. Maybe that's why we're successful; there's a community that wants to make room for that.”
With Gaëlle Cerf and M'Lisa Colbert, Cécile Lars takes care of the management of the community fridge, from its supplies to administrative tasks. The initiative requires more work than you might think: it requires a lot of organization to collect donations, sort food and keep the place clean, all on a voluntary basis. By becoming a non-profit organization, the group responsible for the project wishes to be able to take steps with the City of Montreal and thus establish new partnerships and obtain more donations. The three volunteers hope that once the project is well established, it will be possible for them to contact all the shops and restaurants in the neighborhood to recover their unsold items.
For the moment, only a few of them have answered the call and are giving to the fridge. “At the industry level, there is a huge waste. Maybe they don't want to throw away the products, and we're volunteering to go get them,” Ms. Lars tells us.
For now, members of the community fridge do not have access to a warehouse, another essential element. They had space thanks to the generosity of a local organization, the Société de Dévelopement Commercial (SDC) - Les Quartiers du Canal, which has since moved. Volunteers were able to store the food received in large quantities and had the opportunity to cook it to give away baskets, which would have been much appreciated in the run-up to the holidays.
“It is an activity that we had to abandon with great regret, it was not manageable without a base of operation, explains Ms. Lars. In the meantime, we are doing the best we can with what we have, which has always been the mission of the fridge.”
Make small
The idea of a community fridge has caught on in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. In the neighboring neighborhood, in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Seven Laville set up the Sunshine Food Pantry, where a fridge and pantry are available 24 hours a day. “I created a Facebook page so that people can follow it and see updates. Anyone can comment and give,” explains Ms. Laville. After being refused by the city, she turned to the generosity of a local business, Café 92, which agreed to house the fridge.
“Everything is going well. We've had our ups and downs with people who are taking a lot,” she says. This is a problem mentioned by several people. There is a fine line between those who need more food for themselves or their loved ones and those who have intentions other than sharing.
Photo: Courtesy
Despite everything, the young woman is happy to lead the project and welcomes the kindness of the residents of the neighborhood who give her a hand. “It's the people who contribute. It's what I like to do, I like to build, and it's love to share,” she tells us. “I was a street child, I was placed in a foster family,” says Ms. Laville, who says she already had to steal other children's meals at school.
As an adult, she wanted to give people the opportunity to eat, by removing the obstacles to do so. A few kilometers away, thanks to the initiative of students and children at Dawson College, a community pantry was installed last October on the grounds of the Congregation of Notre-Dame.
John Nathaniel Gertler, one of the initiators of the project, sees it as a process of mutual aid and relationships rather than as a charitable initiative. “It is the community that supports the project, and not the privileged people who are superior because they give to the less fortunate,” he cautions.
“We were inspired by several mutual and community aid projects that emerged during the pandemic, both locally and internationally,” he explains, citing the refrigerators in Saint-Henri and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, as well as the examples of Meals for Milton Park and Montreal Solidarity Supply. Mr. Gertler wants a fridge to be added to the pantry, but this addition poses logistical challenges, in addition to requiring the approval of the hosts.
Photo: Ruby Pratka
Since its inception, the pantry has enjoyed enormous popularity, which speaks to the needs of the neighborhood. In the immediate future, volunteers want to increase the level of donations and then, eventually, be able to buy food. “We would also like to be able to buy food, to ask community members what they want to see in the pantry,” he says. The collective would like to have the support of more local businesses. Currently, two of them are donating. According to Mr. Gertler, several indicated that they gave elsewhere.
“They have a system in place and say they receive a large number of requests for donations. People don't understand how little is being asked for. Our pantry is small, that would make a big difference. This illustrates a bigger problem in the community environment in Montreal,” he believes. The student believes that several organizations have a monopoly in food distribution and that it is difficult for a local project to claim its share, especially at the administrative level. In Montréal-Nord, a community fridge was created in 2017 after the idea was proposed by citizens. Unfortunately, the initiative ran out of steam and had to be interrupted, explains Olivier Lachapelle to us. The initiative was led by neighborhood community organizations, Parole d'ExLeS and Panier Fûté, who shared the premises where the refrigerator was located.
“The tasks are often the responsibility of employees, who don't have the time and resources,” says Mr. Lachapelle. The aim was for restaurant owners to participate, and that was not the case.” In addition to the random nature of donations, mobilization was a problem. “I think that, if it had been supported by citizens, it would have been a success,” he believes. In Villeray, the Frigo La Mie is the work of a committed citizen, Johanne Bélanger.
Five years later, three fridges and several shelves in her house are dedicated to people in the neighborhood. Whenever food is available, Ms. Bélanger announces it on a Facebook group. People then make an appointment to pick up the food. “We need everything and nothing, that's the problem,” she confides. She tells us that the fridge is currently going through a “slow period” because she has received fewer food donations. When quantities permit, Ms. Bélanger also provides food assistance, and other volunteers come to lend a hand.
“It's not just about having a community fridge, at some point you know the stories of the people you meet,” she says. Thus, she directs people to other resources, in addition to managing another non-food donation project, Let's distribute. “Since I can't work anymore, it's taking up my time. I like to help, and it's also nice to see people,” says the one who suffers from chronic pain. Despite her role as fairy godmother of the neighborhood, Ms. Bélanger is humble. “It's easier to help than to ask,” she says. It's not thanks to me: if no one gives me, I can't help anyone. The people around are just as important. I will continue as long as I have gifts and as long as I am able to.”
To go further- Directories of community fridges in Quebec- Information on the safety of donated food- Resources to prevent food waste