Outside Pegasus Dance Studio near Danforth and Coxwell stands a colourful wooden community pantry that five Cub Scouts built last June. The project creates a space for community members to share food and take what they need.
Stephany Dangelo, a long-time East York resident, posted about her cleaning and restocking the community pantry in a community Facebook group on Feb. 3.
“I had noticed that at that time, it was completely empty, and it was just looking very run down,” Dangelo said.
“I posted it because I just wanted to give people a reminder that if you are like me and you periodically go through these purges or cleaning of the cabinets of your pantry, you can donate to the pantry over here at Glebeholme (Boulevard).”
Community pantries and fridges throughout the East York community are built and maintained by community members to support those in need, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, five members of the 115th Cub Scouts Pack C between the ages of 11 and 12 at the time built the community pantry on Glebeholme for the Seeonee Award, a major Scouting honour.
Anna Fowler, mother of Aurora Fowler, one of the Cubs who built the pantry, said it was their way of giving back to the community.
“I am not sure how they realized it, but they realized that some people do not always feel able or secure going out to the food banks always,” she said.
“So they wanted people in the community who maybe are feeling some food insecurity, but are not able to get there to have some options a little bit more locally.”
Last year, the five Cubs and their parents reached out to Pegasus Dance Studio and the nearby Kimbourne Park United Church about building the pantry at their location. Both organizations agreed. The Cubs then built and decorated the pantry with some parental help.
Fowler said the pantry is “an ongoing community project” and has been “lovely.”
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Kate Dupuis, who has lived in East York for the past 15 years, brings goods she cleared out from her home to the pantry whenever she passes by it or takes her children to their dance classes.
“I always say to the kids like, ‘What do you want to eat from the cupboard … Let us make sure it is something that you would want, like yummy cookies, or like good granola bars that they like to eat,’ so that they are part of the process,” Dupuis said.
There are similar community fridge and pantry initiatives around East York.
A community fridge managed by Community Fridges Toronto sits in front of Old’s Cool General Store at the intersection between Lumsden Avenue and Westlake Avenue. The general store reached out to the organization and expressed an interest in setting it up, and it became the third location in the network.
While the fridge operates on a similar idea as a community pantry, it allows neighbours to drop off perishable goods, such as fresh produce and dairy. It is also maintained daily by the organization’s volunteers.
“If you are in need, you can take what you need,” said Sarah Ramsey, an organizer of Community Fridges Toronto. “But then, if you find yourself in like a place of abundance, then we really encourage you to give to the others that are also in need.”
Founded by Jalil Bokhari and Julian Bentivegna in June 2020, Community Fridges Toronto now has a network of eight fridges.
Ramsey hopes that there will be more fridges in their network in the future to help more people access food. At the same time, she also hopes the initiative remains a temporary solution, “and that there will be more effective policy-making in regard to food access.”