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What is normally a safe space in Regina, painted in bright colours, flowers and butterflies with a message reading “food for all” has been reduced to black and charred materials.
The Cathedral Community Fridge caught fire earlier this morning, and crews put out the fire around 3 a.m. Regina Fire said the fire was deliberately set.
Bree Kroner, volunteer, said she doesn’t know what the future holds for the fridge.
“We don’t know if we’re going to rebuild yet,” she said.
“I do know that the people and the community are very excited to use this as an opportunity to move forward with ending food insecurity in the neighborhood and the city.”
Kroner said thankfully fire crews got the blaze under control quickly and there is not a lot of structural damage to the building housing the fridge, but there is extensive electrical and major damage to the fridge itself.
People in the Cathedral neighborhood woke up to heartbreak this morning, the community fridge caught fire. Volunteers are here this morning to pick up the pieces. One volunteer tells me this fire won’t stop the fire in their hearts to help the community. @CJMENews pic.twitter.com/iNJz74yUCY
— Nicole Garn (@garnnic) September 21, 2024
This clean-up was much different for the group of volunteers who normally clean up the fridge on Sundays.
Kroner said the first plan is to make sure the space is safe.
“There are a lot of children under the age of 16 that utilize this resource as their only food source,” she said.
“As well as a lot of people living with disability and seniors — people that are in really vulnerable sectors that rely on this as their only source of food. So we want to make sure that it’s safe for the most vulnerable populations that we are serving.”
The interior of the fridge suffered the most damage. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
The group have posted to social media about the fire. Kroner said she’s surprised by how positive the reaction has been.
“There’s a huge outpouring of support,” she said. “Every volunteer is just saying, ‘Okay, how can I help? What can I do? Tell me what to do. How can we make sure that this resource doesn’t disappear for the people?’ So it seems like this is kind of stoked a fire — for lack of better terms — under under people to kind of continue moving towards ending food insecurity in Regina.”
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The fridge has been operating for four years and is operated entirely by a team of 50-75 volunteers. There are 12 fully autonomous teams like a flash food team, maintenance team, large food delivery, a street team and emergency food hamper team, for example.
“With those teams we deliver about 200,000 pounds of food a year to the fridge specifically on location, and we deliver approximately 1000 to 1500 emergency food hampers to the most vulnerable in our city,” Kroner said.
She said although the future of the fridge is uncertain, the goal is still to help end food insecurity in Regina.
“This fire is not going to stop the fire in our collective hearts,” she said.
Kroner asks anyone who wants to help to donate to its GoFundMe. More than $23,000 had been raised of the stated $25,000 goal on Saturday afternoon.
According to a post on social media, dozens of adults, children and elderly people are showing up for food. The fridge will still be collecting donations and sharing them in the parking lot.
The interior of the fridge is completely destroyed. Parts of what remain have fallen to the ground. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
