Take What You Need; Leave What You Can
A cyclist has skidded to a stop in front of a three-sided shed in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. The rider unloads two dozen eggs, apples, a loaf of bread and a litre of yogurt from a backpack into the refrigerator housed under the back-alley structure.
First established in Europe more than a decade ago, such fridges found a niche in Metro Vancouver at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As many jobs took a pandemic hiatus and people stayed home, neighbourhood connections developed. “People started to get concerned about their neighbours’ ability to access food,” says Mona Grenier, a Vancouver Community Fridge Project (VCFP) volunteer.
VCFP’s network of five fridges is part of a larger grassroots movement of community fridges and pantries that have sprung up in back alleys, street corners and church parking lots across Metro Vancouver in response to ongoing food accessibility concerns.
Mutual aid
Across all 10 provinces, 22.9 per cent of people in 2023 struggled to afford food, but only one in five used food bank services.
“The number one reason people don’t access available food resources such as a food bank is shame and we are trying to reduce that stigma with community fridges,” Grenier says. “They are not a charity-based concept; they are based on mutual aid — neighbours helping neighbours out. Anyone can be a food donor or recipient as their circumstances allow [or require]. It’s a take what you need, leave what you can mantra.
“If someone sees something they’d like in a community fridge, take it,” Grenier says. “Even if you don’t need it but think you might like to try it.”
If everyone treats the fridges this way, Grenier believes this will help de-stigmatize the shame of food insecurity and make it easier for those who need the help to feel comfortable opening the fridge and taking food.
The same philosophy works at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University (SFU). It’s Tara Flynn’s job as co-ordinator for civic and community engagement to strengthen partnerships between the university and the community, share knowledge and have an impact on issues that matter. When the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020 Flynn learned that SFU students were using off-campus food charities. The traditional jobs they relied on in retail and the restaurant industry had vanished and many were struggling financially.
Looking for a long-lasting solution, Flynn spearheaded the installation of two community fridges located in low-traffic indoor areas of the campus. The anonymity of the fridges removes the embarrassment of needing food but also makes it impossible to know how many people are accessing the fridge. It’s how fast the food disappears that tells the story of need and use. Once a week, the fridges are filled with food donated to SFU from FoodMesh, an organization that rescues edible but unused food from restaurants and produce from grocery stores deemed unsaleable because it doesn’t meet the commercial standards of a perfectly shaped carrot or round red apple. Within hours of restocking, the food is taken, Flynn says.
Too good to be true
Neighbours helping neighbours and, in the process, creating food equity within a community admittedly sounds ideal. But is it? Flynn is often asked whether or not the fridges at SFU get vandalized. They don’t. It’s the same story in Mount Pleasant. Food Stash Foundation, whose mission is to prevent food waste and provide dignified food access, co-manages the fridge with VCFP. Staff can keep a close eye on the fridge, which is located behind the Food Stash warehouse. Anna Gray, communications specialist with Food Stash, says there’s been no reason to call emergency services in connection with the fridge.
It’s a phenomenon Cathie Watters, founder of Nick’s Nook, a grassroots collection of community pantries in North Delta, easily explains.
“We are reaching out to everyone, and everyone in the community is eligible to take what they want. We make sure everyone understands this is their resource, there is no judgment. We have nothing like this; the food banks and everything we have [come with barriers].”
Watters is cautiously optimistic about a community fridge for North Delta. “Fridges,” she says, “come with challenges.” She wonders, for example, about items well past their best-before dates left in the fridge.
Community fridges and pantries in B.C. operate under the auspices of the Food Donor Encouragement Act. The organizations managing them are not held responsible for injuries caused by eating the food unless it is adulterated or deemed unfit for human consumption. Each fridge within the VCFP network has a group of volunteers assigned to it that daily checks contents and cleans the fridge. As long as donations remain in unopened labelled packages, there are no restrictions on who or what can be donated to a community fridge.
“A couple of times,” Gray says, “we’ve crossed paths with businesses dropping off items after having sponsored a food drive.” Don’t toss it — share it.
Community fridges are also multi-taskers in that they’re tackling food waste. The government of B.C. reports that one out of every four bags of groceries bought ends up being tossed out. When Flynn hears news stories of edible food ending up in the landfill, it reinforces to her how broken the food distribution system has become. For Flynn, putting the rescued food from FoodMesh into the fridge is a part of the solution. “It’s a small action, but it’s what I can do right now,” she says.
The story comes full circle because when all is said and done it remains the small donations and actions of neighbours thinking about neighbours that keep a fridge or pantry stocked. Watters regularly purges her kitchen cupboards and takes unused items to one of the community pantries in her community of North Delta.
Back in Mount Pleasant, the cyclist has finished unloading the contents of the backpack and has biked away down the alley. A woman walking a dog is at the lean-to and has filled a bag with bread and apples from the fridge. It’s an advantageous cycle as people take what they need and leave what they can.
“I’d love to have a community fridge within walking distance of every residence in Vancouver,” Grenier says.
Vancouver Community Fridge Project
vcfp.square.site | @vancommunityfridgeproject
Simon Fraser University Free Fridge
Rm. 50 Maggie Benston Centre, 8888 University Dr., Burnaby,
sfu.ca/communityengagement/food-security
@foodcommunitysfu
New Hope Church: Nick’s Nook Community Pantries
11838-88th Ave., Delta | new-hope.ca/nicks-nook
