Community Fridge finds new home at the Kitchener Market

Kitchener's Community Fridge has moved from its Charles Street location and has found a new home at the Kitchener Market.

The move comes after its original host, Full Circle Foods, moved to a new location on King Street in October. 

Kamil Ahmed, an organizer with the Community Fridge project, said the group closed the fridge near the end of October, packed it up and started the move to the market.

Ahmed said the fridge has been closed until now, but as of today people can access the fridge on the upper piazza area of the market that faces King Street. The group also got a new fridge for the new location, Ahmed said.

"We want the community to know that the community fridge is still operated and maintained by the same neighbours," he said.

While the community fridge was closed, Ahmed said they continued to deliver food hampers to community members in need. 

Ahmed said it was important to keep the fridge in the core, because that's where people need it most.

"We need it to be visible and we need for people to see their neighbours accessing food in the fridge," he said.

He said the fridge will remain outdoors and accessible 24-7. Ahmed said they also added a pantry to the shelter to allow for more dry goods to be stored. 

Volunteers will continute to check the fridge three times a day. The same rules still apply when donating food. Those rules are:

• Fresh produce is accepted. 
• Non-perishable food items are accepted.
• Meat, seafood, eggs, dairy or alcohol is not accepted.
• Spoiled, opened or rotting food is not accepted. 

The most import rule though, Ahmed said, is to take what you need and leave what you can.