Last weekend, Elia Morrison put up a community pantry box in front of the heritage building he owns on Alice Street to see if it could help feed some hungry bellies.
The purpose was to battle food insecurity during the pandemic. Within a short period of time, Morrison noticed several people drop and take a variety of food items. Some even took cash.
“People leave what they’re able to leave and people who need something are able to just grab what they need when they need it,” said Morrison who owns the Alice Street Clubhouse. The mastermind behind the iniative was Morrison's sister, Annie Morrison.
Morrison said he’s hoping to build a network of community pantries where he would provide the pantry box and hosts around the city would help maintain it.
“We would like to work with a business to put one out in front and they can kind of keep an eye on it, keep it tidy, keep it clean, and then we just do the work to spread the word,” said Morrison.
“If the business wanted something different, we would work with them to figure out something that works.”
Morrison said it really just all comes down to supporting people in the community in need.
Two and a half years ago, Morrison and his wife decided to use the building for community use. They allow the space to be rented to hang out, run movie nights, pop-up coffee shops, art galleries and a hub for different kinds of activism.
The heritage building was previously known to many as V. Valeriote’s Shoe Repairing Shop.
As food insecurity in the community began to increase, the couple decided to take action.
The two were inspired by Community Fridges, an initiative in Toronto created by Jalil Bokhari and Julian Bentivegna where fridges are placed in locations across the city where anyone can stock the fridge and anyone can grab food for free.
“It's the same idea,” said Morrison.
“The idea that this should be pretty self-sustaining so you know if you look in your cupboard and you’ve got a bag of dried lentils that you don't need, you can come by, drop it off in the pantry, and hopefully that's what somebody will need.”
He said while there are many great food insecurity initiatives in the city, they're not always accessible to people when they feel hungry.
“That’s kind of what this is about,” said Morrison.
He said the community pantry will remain in front of the clubhouse for as long as it's needed.
“It's just kind of one small way we thought we can help out and allow for mutual aid in our community,” said Morrison.
“It's just our community coming together to support people in need when they need it where they need it.”
