Community fridge opens in the Knowlton community centre

Exchange of fresh produce operates under the slogan, “Take what you need and give what you can”

Another new project comes to TBL! Under the director of Joanne Nowak, family resource manager of TBL, a community fridge has been opened. It is what Nowak calls a ‘harvest fridge’, meaning that the fridge facilitates the exchange of fresh produce from the gardens of residents. It operates under the slogan, “Take what you need and give what you can”.

The fridge is located in the kitchen of the community centre in Knowlton and everyone is encouraged to drop by and leave produce in exchange for produce left by someone else. Only garden surplus (fruit and vegetables) is being exchanged at the moment.

Nowak did her research for this project. “All over the world there are community fridges and we have them here in the Eastern Townships too.”

She listed the nearby towns of

Stétienne

de Bolton, Sutton, Roxton Pond, Waterloo and Cowansville as places that have initiated similar projects.

She explained that the project is a great way to reduce food waste since much of what we eat is thrown out while it can still be eaten. She continued, “It gets people to share healthy foods and it involves the community”.

In fact, the community was very much involved in the naming process of the fridge.

Two residents, Ghislaine Lebel and Lily-anne Willey, were the winners of the contest held to pick a name and slogan for the fridge. According to Nowak, “Commufridge/commu-frigo” was chosen because it is billigual and makes everyone feel welcome.

Nowak explained that the fridge already had a trial run. Knowlton Academy’s “Secret Garden” recently had a harvest of herbs, radishes, lettuce and more that was brought to the fridge.

At that point, Nowak explained, “The fridge wasn’t officially open, so I called people in the community to come help themselves.”

Even before its official opening the fridge was serving TBL.

Furthermore, the location of the fridge inside the community centre gives it an advantage that many fridges in the surrounding regions cannot enjoy.

Nowak explained that due to the COVID situation, many fridges have had to close for safety reasons.

Luckily for TBL residents, the community centre is open for blood tests, Summer camp, and more, so the fridge can also stay open. Nowak added that she is working there from Monday to Friday so she can oversee that only one person is in the kitchen at a time and that all other safety measures are being followed.

If you are there for a blood test, take a radish too, said Nowak.

The fridge will run until around the end of September and people can help themselves between 8 a.m. – noon and 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Nowak invites any local producers and people with gardens to participate, and any kind of harvest surplus from the public market or other events is also welcome.

Granby ran into problems with people taking a lot more than they were leaving and had to close their fridge. Nowak is hopeful that generosity will prevail in TBL.

Alongside donations from individuals, Nowak expressed a desire to keep taking in the non-sellable but perfectly edible produce from the IGA that would otherwise be tossed. This produce used to go to the local food bank but during COVID, the food bank has been giving out gift cards instead.

“Why not have this food available for people?” explained Nowak.

The survival of this project, Nowak concluded, depends on the generosity of people in the community.

“We’ll see how it goes”.