Meeting between United Church and Kelowna Community Fridge
October 10 2023 – 5-7pm

In attendance: Anna-Marie, Amira, Amina, Terry, Ollie, Minister Keith, Susanne (arrived at 6, miscommunication about time)

Opening poem and song from Keith [We Shall Overcome]

“A community fridge is…” prompt from Keith

• a place to freely exchange food and build community (Ollie)
• food sharing without feeling bad about it – people don’t like asking for help, but when it’s community it’s less intimidating (Amira)
• a place without a charity model – no barriers. there’s difference and privilege and power, but this is a place to breakdown these barriers (Terry)

• sharing abundance. People had too much in their garden, and this was a place they could share (Anna-Marie)
• a place to take what you need, give what you can (Terry)
• a place for everyone in the community – you’re not in a lesser situation than anyone else, we’re all just contributing to the same cause – help me help you (Amina)
• a community fridge is a great idea. it can be a place of threat. it can be a place for waste and destruction. can be a lot of work. community fridge work falls work falls on a few. community fridge work can be exhausting. (Keith, sharing what other people have said to him – concerns from congregation members, and Lisa expressed a lot of frustration in a call)

Keith sharing about how their food sharing, there is methods of metering out/filtering
for the Fridge, could store ‘overflow’ inside and filter it out through the day to make food available more consistently

Ollie recognized need for reorganization within the Kelowna Community Fridge – particularly with cleaning shift coordination and financial coordinator as a bare minimum before setting up a new location (edit afterwards: as well as a maintenance coordinator)

Keith saying that congregation members have expressed it might be better to have the Fridge closed at night – unsure what time, but put up sign saying “there is not food here, come back at [time] in the morning”. Possibility for there to be shared responsibility between KCF volunteers and church members to close the Fridge at night.

waste disposal available, potential of cameras? would those help? they did not at Burke Hair Lounge

Amira thinks it’d be good to have posters explaining what the Fridge is, how to approach it

enclosure for winter heating? a small heater to keep the space warm enough that cans/jars can be safe temperatures

Ollie brings up possibility of just having pantry space, rather than a fridge, which can be difficult to maintain outdoors

Anna-Marie brings up concept of ‘free store’ model, extending the UC tuesday model (volunteers staffing it,’take ten items’ limitations)

Keith brings up intentional destruction of goods by businesses in scarcity based society – there is enough for people, but money is put up as a barrier

Anna-Marie brings up a lot of unhoused people do need presence and kindness, to be heard

Keith agrees from his time being an ambasedor to people on unemployment – people want to be heard, treated as full people

Terry sharing about 24/7 being part of the low barrier model.

Ollie shares about one of the ‘spiritual projects’ of the Fridge being trusting people that they may experience trustworthiness

Susanne sharing about that the two previous KCF locations have had damage to the fridge and shelves, as well as garbage pile ups – how do we prevent that from happening again? Keith and Ollie share some about the reorganization that’s ongoing – upkeeping the space helps reduce and prevent the mess

Anna-Marie wondering about if there is a sudden mess, like smashed jars – who would clean them up? Keith says he could sometimes, but a call list would be important for urgent messes

Terry returns to the low barrier topic – if the Fridge is only available certain times, that prevents access. Having things replenished would be helpful, though adds the difficulty of someone needing to do that

Keith sharing about people being in the building of the Duncan church, only twice did he have to call 911, and even then people took off and police didn’t actually come. here, 911 was called, primarily for ambulance, though police responded once because of an assault (unhoused neighbors being pepper sprayed)

Ollie emphasizes that issues with police is primarily people being treated as ‘thiefs’ – it’s not possible to steal from something freely given, and calling police on people taking from the fridge is antithetical to free sharing model

Anna-Marie sharing being against 24/7, because she doesn’t need access to her Fridge at 3am – Terry brings up that other people live differently, and might need to eat during the night. Ollie shares about some unhoused people being safer being out overnight.

Keith wonders if we can perhaps have a small access cooler for overnights, or experiment with varying hours and seeing how that goes

Terry wonders about the sense Keith and Susanne have of the congregations feelings about the Fridge – Keith shares there’s general support, but concern about the issues of cleanliness and interactions with unhoused community

Susanne shares about church members, particularly the elderly, needing to have sense of safety, and that is a concern from many people. There are events going on frequently, and someone say in their 80s walking with a cane might not be comfortable walking past unhoused people outside. Susanne has done outreach for 3 years, experiencing unhoused people knowing they can get food from the church any day of the week – doesn’t want to turn them down, but other members of the church want to see UC having other emphases outside of outreach. Susanne’s concern is that by introducing KCF, if there were problems or growing pains, that it would reflect negatively on the church.

Anna-Marie sharing about the UC entrance already being blocked sometimes, when Amira and Amina were attending classes – they felt they needed to get security in order to move those people.

Keith shares that people seek shelter and warmth where they can, and that happens regardless of food sharing programs. That is part of why they have Nick, security preseence, and a security company who loops the building several times the night. Feels this is just because of the location, not linked to food sharing. “Who’s the church for?” is a frequent question/discussion.

There will be larger conversations with the congregation – another next step is looking at what the cost of putting in the shelter would be, and what grants might be possible. Who would apply for that – UC or KCF? or collaborating on that?

One thing that Keith has heard that he doesn’t know how to respond to. “There’s enough food in the community, we don’t need to be doing this” – that people can go to Metro or access food elsewhere. He says that well, people are showing up for the food sharing, so clearly they need it. Ollie shares there are a lot of gaps, a lot of lack of access. As much as there are routes of help, there are many many people who are struggling to pay rent, childcare, health/medical bills – as much help as there is, there is a Lot more need created by barriers

Anna-Marie brings up the lack of community kitchen, cooking for the people who cook, and having the community connection involved in that as well. It was something she really looked forward to, and thinks stuff like that would be nice.

Keith looking for a clear proposal – hosting Pantry and Fridge, and that comes with (voulnteers, urgent care, storage inside, organizer keys to the building, access to dumpster keys).

Susanne has a question: where does the food come from? folks share – businesses like groocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, Lake Country Food Bank – as well as individuals stocking the Fridge/Pantry, whether it be a weekly pattern, or one off sharings. Anna-Marie has connected with Mamas for Mamas as well. In general getting food has not been a core issue, but rather the cleaning and volunteer organization.

Keith talking about building the sense of abundance – both from people receiving, and people giving. Opportunities to grow into the people we can be under abundance.

Proposal “if we have [volunteers, organizers], then [” to give time for UC congregation framework to work on