At London’s ‘community fridge,’ endless need and a call for more help

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Shilon Shassan is lucky on this occasion. There’s milk.

The London woman comes to Community Fridge London, a free food site on Base Line Road, three to four times a week to get food for her family and this was a good visit. Milk was available.

“It’s a big help. It means a lot to get extra help, to save a bit of money for what the kids need for school, like coats and boots, warm clothing,” Shassan said. “It’s a great program especially for people in need. There are people out there who are desperate.”

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Shassan’s story is not unique and it’s exactly why the Community Fridge, located in a shed behind St. John the Divine Parish, has become critical for people in need. It’s also a program facing an uncertain future as its founders look for new people to run it, and a new home.

“We want to see about other people taking it over. We’ve spoken to about 20 people and canvassed churches,” said co-founder Patti Lake.

Added co-founder Kathleen Murphy: “We’ve been doing it for three years and we don’t want forever projects. It’s a lot of work and there are other things going on in our lives, but we’re working on finding new partners.”

The fridge, at first glance, doesn’t look like much. It’s a regular kitchen fridge and freezer located in a shed, cleaned and restocked daily with food and available to all. There’s a cupboard next to it offering bread, baked goods and canned food.

But it is extraordinary.

In 2023, it gave away $456 dollars worth of food daily. Now it supplies $1,100 a day in food, seven days a week. It opened in 2022 and now has 50 volunteers.

As for its users, 50 per cent live within five kilometres, 65 per cent use it once a week while about half of its users also give its food to neighbours.  

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The fridge gets food from donations, mostly Harvest Hands in St. Thomas, a food rescue organization that receives food from grocery stores and farmers that was otherwise to be thrown out. It delivers the food to more than 300 agencies across Southwestern Ontario.

“We get large quantities of food. We take that and put in more manageable sizes. We distribute it to organizations, food banks, missions, shelters, soup kitchens and lunch programs for youth and kids. We never say no,” laughed Amy Collins, who runs Harvest Hands with her father, Jim.

Harvest Hands supplies food to 300 organizations, from Windsor to Oshawa, enough food to make 8,500 meals a month, all literally rescued from landfills.

Since it began in 2020, Harvest Hands has rescued $25 million worth of food. The organization is all volunteer and all the food is donated.

“There are so many opportunities for food out there. We get rid of it every single time,” Amy Collins said. “It’s increasing. Last month, we added 22 organizations. There are so many people looking for help. It’s crazy, the number of Canadians struggling with food insecurity.”

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At Community Fridge London, it’s also volunteer-driven and the fridge is cleaned and restocked daily. It’s not unusual to see a lineup of people waiting, said Lake, the co-founder. But an hour later, it’s empty.

“They wait for us,” she said.

The fridge doesn’t track its total number of users, but demand is growing. Officials have applied for grants, get money from the Rotary Club and rely on donations that can be made online at communityfridgelondon.com.

It all began in September 2021 when Lake was celebrating her 70th birthday and didn’t want “stuff.” She wanted to “do something for the community.” 

Her daughter, who lives in Toronto, was aware of community fridge programs there.

“It took a year to find someone who would let us put it on their land. We tried many groups. It has to be outside, it has to be accessible,” Lake said.

Lake and her friend Murphy also are Rotarians and the service club, the Rotary Club of London South, offered to pay for insurance to cover the operation of the fridge. 

The Rotary Club fiscal year ends June 30. Lake and Murphy hope to know by then if another group will take over.

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“The hope is another group will step up and even establish a fridge in other areas of the city where there’s need,” Lake said.

There’s another large, commercial fridge inside the church and a standup freezer where food is stored and used to replenish the fridge outside.

On this day, the fridge and freezer were full of fruit and vegetables and some prepared food such as meat pies.

As for Shassan, she’s been coming to the fridge for about two years. She has three children and a husband. With rising costs, she says they need help.

“Everything is so expensive, rent, hydro and gas, clothing, just everything for the kids,” she said.

While she’s there, another person arrives to get food from the fridge, and asks if she needs any more.

“No, I’m lucky,” she says. “I have milk today.”

ndebono@postmedia.com

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