On the Possibilities of Community Fridges
in Hamilton, Ontario and beyond!
Hi everyone,
Happy April!
This month’s newsletter was inspired by one of my former students who let me know about a new student-led community fridge at our university. The student also posed a thoughtful question, that is, whether there are potential downfalls or challenges of having a public fridge; might shame play a role in whether someone actually accesses the fridge?
This is such a great question because it reminds us that accessing food is always about more than just the food itself. There are also a host of emotional, social, and cultural factors that shape peoples’ relationships to food, and their experiences of food (in)security. The reverse is also true, that someone’s relationship to food and food (in)security have an impact on the emotional, social and cultural factors that shape their lives.
The idea that food insecurity is an individual problem— something to be ashamed of— is reinforced in the ways people talk about it and how the media reports on it. Terms like “needy,” and “less-fortunate” pathologize the people seeking support and paint the “fortunate” as the heroes swooping in to save the day. There is a lot wrong with this familiar framing— it gives white savior complex and philanthropic billionaire energy without engaging meaningfully with the conditions that create food insecurity to begin with.
While folks may experience their relationship to food— or lack thereof— differently, the problem of food access is systemic in nature. I’m reminded of this Alicia Elliott article, where she does the challenging work of contextualizing the structural nature of food inequity. Here, she locates the theft of her people’s lands, the nutrition experiments conducted on Indigenous children in residential schools, and the uneven distribution of resources, as impacting her relationship to food and her body.
Food justice activist and urban farmer, Karen Washington, also frames food inequity as a structural problem with the term “Food Apartheid.” In an interview with Stephen Satterfield, she asserted that the term "Food Apartheid [as opposed to food dessert] brings in all social elements that people don’t want to talk about, but that we need to talk about, in order to move the food system more close to being just and inclusive, which it’s not.”
Whereas the familiar term “food desert” suggests that food insecurity is some sort of natural phenomenon, Washington’s “Food Apartheid” draws attention to the fact that the food insecurity is not natural or accidental, but rather, it is by design that people of colour are denied access to nutritious affordable food, farmland, and business opportunities in the food industry. To learn more about this, you can check out this conversation between Satterfield and Washington on the Point of Origin podcast.
Drawing attention to the structural nature of food inequity helps combat the belief that food insecurity is an individual’s fault. Stating this won’t prevent people from experiencing shame around accessing food via banks, pantries, or fridges. But the hope is that it might help reframe how we ("we" as in communities) think about our responsibilities to one another (as people who must eat) as well as the responsibilities of institutions to our communities.
Something that is especially exciting about the community fridge model is the fact that they are community lead and do not require folks seeking support to coordinate with governing bodies. This is important because, depending on where someone is located, accessing a food bank or pantry may require them to provide personal information and coordinate with the same governing bodies that have historically harmed them. It makes sense that these kinds of establishments might make folks feel uneasy.
Unlike charitable models (which love to use the kind of language I flagged earlier), community fridge initiatives focus on mutual aid. They do not set limits on how much food someone adds or takes, nor do they record who accesses the fridge or for what purpose. Anyone can stop by to load it up with foods they’ve purchased or no longer need. Anyone can pop in to make sure the fridge is clean and functioning. Anyone can take what they need, no explanation required. The goal is the reciprocal exchange of resources for mutual benefit.
In this Eater article Dr. Oona Morrow says it well:
“Community fridges are an opportunity for people to reimagine what the infrastructure of cities could be like. Fridge volunteers are prototyping a different kind of urban infrastructure that could be more caring.”
I don’t want to frame this as an either/or type of situation; It’s not food banks and policy change vs. community fridges and community action.
While I am really excited by what community fridges make possible, I think they also raise a lot of important questions about institutional responsibilities and reparations. Community fridges emerge (and have a history of emerging) in response to crises, neglect, systemic violence, and inadequate policy. The resurgence of community fridges in the context of COVID-19 is evidence of all this. Fridges have popped up in response to an immediate need for food. (I recently attended a talk about community fridges and mutual aid with Jacqueline Cantar, founder of Community Fridges Hamont and they spoke to the high turn-over at the fridges and at food pantries in the past couple years.) In other words, while we push for policy change, people still need to eat!
While community fridges can be part of a beautiful and important practice of collective care, the presence and proliferation of fridges alone cannot solve the problem of food inequity. As fridge organizers themselves point out, the presence and proliferation of community fridges does not mean that we stop pushing for larger systemic changes and reparations.
Returning to my former student’s original question, community fridges alone can’t magically heal how people have been made to feel about not having food. But, as Jacqueline pointed out in their talk, doing work in community can help to reframe the responsibilities related to accessing food and distribute that responsibility more equitably. I see this as part of what Morrow calls “prototyping a different kind of urban infrastructure that could be more caring.”
The possibilities that community fridges enable leave me with two hopeful questions that I will carry with me going forward. Questions leave space for a multitude of possibilities and the space to talk about those possibilities! I invite you to use them to facilitate conversations with your communities!
How might a community-based infrastructure like a community fridge help to combat stigma and shame when anyone, anywhere, no matter their situation, can both give to and take from the fridge? What’s more, what can happen when we see/understand/talk about/address problems of food insecurity as a collective responsibility instead of an individual problem?
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Big thanks to my former student, who sent along the link to the Instagram account for the student-run community fridge on McMaster’s campus, which is currently seeking volunteers.
Other community fridges and community pantries in Hamilton:
Reading
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Yes, it’s me, an English PhD who, until this month, had not read a single thing by Mary Shelley. And, shockingly, I regret not reading this one sooner! I’m usually not a big fan of the classics but this one was gripping. I finally decided to read it because Frankenstein circulates as a kind of feminist vegetarian text (the monster is a vegetarian!!). I’m glad I did!
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
This dystopian-post-apocalyptic-sci-fi book was written in the 90s and is set in the mid-late 2020s. There are terrifying parallels between what we are living through and what Butler outlines in the novel. A good and important read with lots of food references.
Upstream by Mary Oliver
This collection of essays was a bit of a random read for me. It’s not what I usually gravitate towards and I can’t say it was my favourite, but there are some meditations that I found interesting; there is one sweet essay about a spider and a few notes on vegetarianism that I enjoyed thinking with.
Depression Cooking Zine by Sonali Menezes
I love this zine and it is available for free at the link above! I’m going to talk about it more in next month’s newsletter. This work is described as “part easy recipe book, part manifesto for surviving under the crushing weight of capitalism as a Mad person.”
Listening
The Point of Origin episode on Food Apartheid that I cited earlier.
Watching
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. on Netflix
Has anyone watched this?? It is a very bizarre docuseries about Sarma Melngailis, the former owner of two raw vegan restaurants in New York called Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck. In the mid 2010s she was at the heart of a big financial scandal. She divulges the details in the series and they’re…strange!
The Great Canadian Baking Show on Netflix because it is so cozy and comforting.
Cooking + Eating
This tofu dish. Sometimes with rice, sometimes without.
Pan-fried extra-firm tofu (marinated for a couple hours in olive oil, sesame oil, tamari, liquid smoke, salt and pepper) with grilled zucchini, leek and garlic. Dressed with chili-miso. Topped with sesame seeds.
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As always, please get in touch with any questions or requests, and please share if you found this helpful!
Stay cozy,
Melissa