Advocates call for a new community fridge to serve Charlottetown's downtown core

With its bright yellow and green doors and paintings of various fruits adorning the sides, downtown Charlottetown's community fridge brought a pop of colour — and fresh, nutritious food — to the provincial capital's downtown core.

The fridge first opened four and a half years ago to fanfare and political photo ops. Now, the parking lot of the Parkdale-Sherwood Lions Club is mostly quiet, and the fridge itself is nowhere to be seen. 

"The idea really came about from hearing the needs of the community," said Sandra Sunil, a co-ordinator of the community fridge. 

"What we heard from folks is that they're looking for affordable food, good quality food, cooked meals, warm meals and something that's quick and easy and grab-and-go."

The fridge served that purpose for a while, until Charlottetown council voted in 2024 to shut it down, citing a zoning issue. 

Some residents also complained about garbage around the site, the clientele that visited the fridge and the amount of food they were taking. 

Now, the site of the first-ever community fridge in the province is vacant, and the city hasn't received any applications to replace it. 

While there's no movement yet, advocates say they want to see that gap in Charlottetown's downtown core filled — and that there's still a need for support and resources in the community for those experiencing food insecurity. 

While the downtown Charlottetown fridge was the first of its kind on P.E.I., it wasn't the last. 

There are two other fridges in the city now: one off of Brackley Point Road and one in the West Royalty area. 

Both of those fridges are supervised — a different model of operation than the now-shuttered downtown iteration.

But that's not how Sunil wants to do things.

"It definitely doesn't align with my values, with what the heart of the project is," she said. "We wanted to make sure that it's a resource and support where there's no questions asked, there's no barriers involved in … accessing the food."

While Sunil's concerns are about creating stigma around the fridge's use, others say if supporting a vulnerable population means tracking who's served.