‘Take what you need, leave what you can’: Cole Harbour pair spearhead community fridge project

COLE HARBOUR, N.S. — Terra Crowe needed to do more.

She already delivers groceries right to her students and their families. Crowe volunteers to do this every Friday. She starts with her pickups at the Cole Harbour Woodside United Church Food Bank and then she’s off, delivering eight bags of groceries to families.

The mother of three is a community outreach worker with the Halifax Regional Centre for Education. She lives in Cole Harbour and works with students at four schools.

She’s finding more and more families are struggling to put food on the table. So Crowe is taking another step to feed her neighbours. 

She and colleague Ellis Pickersgill, who’s also an outreach worker with HRCE, have started a simple food bank: a community fridge. 

The fridge is tucked away in a shed at the back of the Cole Harbour Woodside United Church. It will remain unlocked and open around the clock. People can help themselves whenever they want.

“The idea is take what you need, leave what you can,” Crowe said. “We’re seeing such food insecurity, and it’s on the rise. I’m a believer that people want to help.”

People can donate to the group or choose to replenish the fridge themselves with items such as frozen meat and vegetables, eggs and milk. 

Non-perishable foods are also welcome. The shed, built by church parishoners, includes a few shelves for canned goods and dry foods.

They’re getting support from the community. A team of volunteers called the Cole Harbour Community Fridge Association will run the program.

Crowe’s students are pitching in with food drives. The Westphal Cole Harbour Firefighters Association has pledged to fill the fridge twice a month. The association has a grant from the Southeastern Community Health Board, and RBC has pledged to support the project.

The grand opening of the community fridge at 15 Bissett Rd. in Cole Harbour will take place next Saturday, Oct. 21, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Crowe is hoping the community fridge will make it a little easier for people to get food when they need it. Many food banks open just once a month or during business hours when people are working.

Unwarranted shame also prevents people from using food-support programs, Crowe said.

“The idea is take what you need, leave what you can.”

– Terra Crowe

“This will be a place where people can come and go anonymously,” she said. “No one is tallying who is coming and going or asking them for their personal information.”

Food insecurity is a growing problem in Nova Scotia.  Nearly a quarter of Nova Scotians can’t consistently afford healthy and nutritious food, according to a Statistics Canada report released last spring. 

Nova Scotia also has the fourth-highest child poverty rate in Canada and the highest in Atlantic Canada, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia.

Crowe and Pickersgill are doing what they can to tackle the problem.

“If we can feed one person who otherwise would go hungry, then that would be a success,” Pickersgill said.