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High demand for the repair of items in Guelph's Virtual Repair Cafe

Volunteers will fix items in their homes rather than at the traditional Repair Cafes at locations throughout Guelph
202101Jan20
Toby Binder, a volunteer fixes a sewing machine in his home for January's virtual Repair Cafe.

The pandemic might have put a pause on the Guelph Tool Library’s Repair Cafe, but hasn’t been able to stop it.

The Repair Cafe shut down last March then held an outdoor event in September. Last Friday it started a new program that allows people to drop items off at the Guelph Tool Library in the Old Quebec Street Shoppes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The item will then be taken to the volunteer fixing it, who will return it for pickup to the Tool Library when it's done.

Saba Saneinejad, Repair Cafe coordinator, said interest in the virtual cafe has been high with the Repair Cafe already receiving over 40 items.

The grant enables the volunteers in the repair team to fix 60 items for free in their homes until the end of July.

“I believe it will be more than 60 items if we can find other sources of grants,” said Saneinejad.

Repair Cafes in Guelph normally run every two months at different locations in the city. The goal of the program is to promote sustainability by repairing items such as electronics, clothing, jewelry among more instead of throwing them away. 

Bringing together community members for a common purpose also helps them collaborate for the good of society. 

This month’s Repair Cafe program was made possible by a grant from the Canadian Red Cross and the Guelph Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Community Response Fund and the City of Guelph’s Emergency Fund.

Guelph Tool Library’s Repair Cafe has been operating as a free event for the last four years and had to close its location at Tytler Public School in March due to the pandemic

It ran an outdoor repair cafe in September when COVID-19 cases were low and community members could safely distance themselves outdoors but had to close that one too when seasons changed. 

“After that, it got cold again and we didn’t want to do it inside so nothing has been happening since then until now,” said Saneinejad.

“The reason we offered this program was because we received a grant that we could use to deliver items to our fixers.”

Those looking to repair items fill out a form with the repair cafe online.

“Then we will review them, make sure the item is something we can fix with the fixers we have currently and when that’s identified, we’ll let them know to bring their items to the tool library during our opening hours,” said Saneinejad. 

“Once we have the items, we will deliver them to our fixers. We’ll have them fixed or in some cases, it might not be fixed and then our fixers will provide some feedback for them basically to teach them how it was done and what they can learn from it.”

The item is then brought back to the tool library ready for pick up. 

Saneinejad said while the Repair Cafe is a free event, it welcomes donations. 

“The donations help to be able to buy parts and materials for fixing. It helps us pay the rent in places where we have our in-person cafe and it helps us provide refreshments for our volunteers and visitors,” said Saneinejad.


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Anam Khan

About the Author: Anam Khan

Anam Khan is a journalist who covers numerous beats in Guelph and Wellington County that include politics, crime, features, environment and social justice
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