Fergus's Friendly Fridays getting rescued food to those in need

FERGUS – A Fergus woman has invited the community to a new, low-key initiative to get some rescued food into the hands of those who need it. 

Chelsey Bell will be at BT Corner each Friday around 3:30 p.m. for Friendly Fridays which she described as a way to get together and share some food with those who may need it. 

The program started last week.

“The idea is just rescue food, don’t let it go to waste and let’s get together and just be together,” Bell said. 

Previously involved occasionally with similar food initiatives such as Bungalow 55 and CW Mobile Meals, Bell said this got started when she got a donated box of food from Fergus’ Fresh Box Market. 

Originally she pulled a wagon and was knocking on doors asking if people wanted some food before deciding to set up in the park across from the Food Bank at the corner of Queen Street West and Bridge Street in Fergus, doing it for the first time last week and announcing it in various Facebook community groups. 

“No one ever seems to sit in it but it’s absolutely beautiful,” Bell said. “We’ll set things up and have a get together right? I’ll just invite everybody in town and they can come and if anyone wants to take some food, that’s great.”

Bell plans to do this each Friday until October, distributing donated food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

“That’s really when we’re going to hit those main harvest times and when harvest hits it’s so wonderful but there’s always excess and it goes to waste,” Bell said. 

She has a few ideas on how to expand Friendly Fridays, such as putting together a book of resources in the area.

“We have amazing programs in our area and they’re not accessed because people don’t know about them or maybe they can’t get the information printed and they need a little help,” Bell said. 

As someone who has used the food bank, Bell said she knows summer tends to leave it lower in stock than normal so she hoped this low key initiative can help. 

“Maybe this can be a way to bring that harvest into the hands of people who need it,” she said. 

Bell is open to taking food donations, but not monetary ones, to distribute at Friendly Fridays.