Alayne McGregor
An arson attack on Centretown’s community fridge and pantry hasn’t prevented residents from leaving food for neighbours who need it.
The BUZZ was taking photos last week of the boarded-up structure when a young girl went up to it and left a tray of vegetables. An adult with her told us that they were still leaving food there despite the fire, because it was needed.
On Wednesday, May 1, Ottawa Fire received a call just after 7:15 a.m. about a fire at the pantry site at 415 MacLaren Street. The fire destroyed the fridge and the inside of the structure; the structure was left standing.
Ottawa Public Foods founder Susan Palmai said she first heard of problems late the previous day when volunteers found a burn mark on one of the pantry’s shelves.
“So I figured I’d better get down there first thing Wednesday morning. [On Wednesday] I turned the corner on MacLaren Street and there were all these police and fire and it was gone. The whole thing was on fire.
“I just feel for the people who used it and are no longer getting food. When I was there on Wednesday morning, a few clients came up and spoke to me, and one of them just gave me a big hug. She said, ‘You guys have worked so hard.’ ”
The community reaction to the fire has been “amazing,” she said. Shortly after the fire, the organizers were offered a new commercial fridge as a donation. A local store offered 10 percent of their Saturday profits to the pantry to help rebuild.
Palmai said the pantry had suffered a lot of “minor mischief” since it opened, including red paint splashed over the pantry shelves, and the shelves themselves being stolen.
“Those kind of minor things we deal with all the time and it doesn’t bother us too much because we expect a certain amount of it. But this was major.”
There were no threats made against the pantry, she said. “On the contrary, we have really good support from the community. It’s amazing, actually – people come and drop off food. We have the odd person whom people feel they take too much so they discipline people themselves by saying ‘You wait your turn.’”
There was too much need in the community for this food, she said. “The fridge is always empty. We fill it up and we fill the shelves up and, within an hour, it’s empty.”
Ottawa Public Foods’ work at the pantry was supported by a cohort of 23 volunteers. Some checked and cleaned and restocked the shelves and fridge once or twice a day; others picked up donated food from grocery stores and bakeries.
The community fridge and pantry opened on October 6, 2022, as a joint project of the Glebe St. James United Church, Ottawa Community Housing, the Centretown Community Health Centre, the Arlington 5 Café, and Carleton University’s School of Architecture.
Palmai said it was becoming a self-sustaining operation. “We still have a fund of money at Glebe St. James United Church that people have donated to, but we haven’t needed it. People keep donating. One of our volunteers ran a food drive in her building downtown and she brought in 500kg of food!”
The pantry also gets food from Food Sharing Ottawa.
Architecture students from Carleton University volunteered their time to help build a structure to house the fridge and pantry. Palmai said the school owns the structure, so they will be looking at salvaging what they can and restoring the building so the pantry can use it again. She wasn’t sure how long that would take. The BUZZ contacted the Carleton professor responsible but had not heard back by press time.
Palmai said the organizers might be able to run a few pop-up tables while the structure is being repaired.
The Ottawa Police’s arson unit is now investigating the fire. The unit is asking anyone with information, photos, or video footage, before or during the fire to contact them at 613-236-1222 ext. 2202. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or at crimestoppers.ca.