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Station 8 first started their Community Fridge back in July 2022 with a goal to help supply fresh produce, dairy and proteins. An anonymous corporate donor gives two truckloads of food every week, and staff and volunteers working out of the Station 8 headquarters stock the fridges daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Volunteer Wendy Keats says the program generally works as intended, and gets lots of use, with supplies dwindling by the end of each week. But there have also been incidents of misuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the community fridges are located beside the Station 8 office, staff and volunteers have a sense of who and how many people come and go. A couple of times they stocked the fridges, \u201cand 15 minutes later, everything is gone,\u201d says Keats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were watching people with Nova Scotia license plates coming in and going out with six bags of food,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd we were also being informed by members of the community about people who were abusing it from outside of the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keats says Station 8 also received images documenting attempts to sell food on social media, food that was likely sourced from the free community fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe did have adequate evidence that it was being used in a way it was not intended for,\u201d says Keats. \u201cAnd by people it was not intended for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The incidents prompted Station 8 to make some changes to their operation. They stocked the fridge more often and with less produce, started closing access overnight, and have more clearly defined their target clients according to region. The fridge is now open 10am to 10pm, seven days a week, says Keats, and \u201cwe’ve had to make it clear that it is for people in the greater Dorchester area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sackville\u2019s Community Sharing Cupboard, located in a small shed just behind the Sackville Commons building on Lorne Street, has also been well used since in opened in May 2023, and has had similar issues with misuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cupboard is a project of the Sackville Food Bank, and is stocked twice per week by volunteers Jacqueline and Tammy Fahey. Unlike Station 8, the Sackville Cupboard supplies are purchased from the Food Bank budget, but both operations also rely on food donated directly from community members and users. The Sackville Cupboard also gets extra produce from Station 8 on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Faheys say there have been incidents where they have returned to the cupboard within minutes of restocking and found it cleaned out. Some clients also report issues with finding the cupboard bare. In some cases, the Faheys have spoken to people involved, which seems to have resolved some issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere’s not really too much we can do differently,\u201d says Jacqueline Fahey. \u201cWe can check on it, but that would be very time consuming.\u201d Fahey says that recently, \u201dit seems to be better,\u201d and she\u2019s, \u201chopeful that things are going to just stay this way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there\u2019s occasional calls for security cameras and enhanced monitoring on social media when problems occur, Keats and the Faheys agree that those aren\u2019t practical responses, and defeat the self-serve nature of the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat are we supposed to do with cameras?\u201d asks Keats. \u201cThis is volunteer staff. We’re just trying to do the best that we can to serve and help out our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keats and the Faheys all agree that the Community Fridge and Community Sharing Cupboards, despite occasional incidents with misuse, are working well to get food distributed to those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUsually when certain things go on,\u201d says Tammy Fahey, \u201cit ends up with a few people have ruined it for everybody\u2026 We\u2019re trying not to let that happen. We’re just continuing. And if there are a few oddballs out there, we hope they ease off\u2026 Because right now people need it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite some misuse in recent months, both the Sackville Community Sharing Cupboard and its counterpart the Station 8 Community Fridge in Dorchester continue to supply area residents with much needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[472,492,482,558],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-daily-news","category-front-page","category-weekly"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Station-8-Nov-2023-EB.jpeg\")
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