ERIN – A new way to put a dent into food insecurity is coming to Erin.
Erin Seed to Plate (ESTP) has been given approval from the town to install a community fridge and freezer at Centre 2000.
ESTP member Abel Page, who is taking the lead on this project, said the group has seen in the news the struggle food banks are facing in the region with higher demands and wanted to provide another option for the community to have access to good food.
“There are also issues with nutrition, people eating junk food and not necessarily eating healthy,” Page said. “Also a lot of people might grow a few vegetables during the summer but they don’t know how to cook them.”
Community fridges work similar to little free libraries or little free pantries, where the community can access them, either to give or take, at any time with no questions asked.
“It’s not a replacement for the food bank … but there’s a lot of people that don’t really want to go to the food bank,” said Jen Edwards, another ESTP member. “You don’t have to put your name down or anything, you can just go and take something if you need it.”
In the case of community fridges, there are some rules and guidelines people need to follow. Generally items that can go in the fridge are raw vegetables and sealed, packaged food that has been prepared in a certified kitchen or bought at a store.
Page said the fridge can’t accept homemade meals but it could integrate into other programs ESTP does.
“We offer workshops in the community, the idea is that we encourage you to grow your own food and then we offer cooking classes where you can learn to cook your produce from your garden,” Page said.
“We want to use some of these workshops and cooking lessons to do some community cooking sessions where we cook meals in a certified kitchen in accordance with all public health statutes so that we can use that to put in the fridge.”
Page said the Centre 2000 was chosen as the location for the fridge because it is a covered area, a high traffic area and accessible.
ESTP expects the fridge to be put in place early February.
