Fridge - May 30, 2021

by Rev. Joan Kessler

Fridge

Luke 14:1, 7-14

I have a question to ask you this morning… what is something the average person does 22 times a day? I’m not sure what answers you are thinking about…when I heard it asked on a radio call-in contest, I was a bit stumped… it’s quite a lot of one activity. The answer you may be surprised to know is that we look in the fridge approximately 22 times in a single day… it’s fascinating that someone thought to count but I would agree with this number. And recollecting this quiz question got me thinking this week about what we find in our fridges as well as a conversation I had and how COVID has brought the topic of food security and solidarity into our social consciousness.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Community Fridges when it was announced that such a project had been undertaken in the Regina neighborhood I used to call home. The Cathedral Village area is a very tight-knit community and it is home to a diverse socio-economic strata as well as hosting a vibrant arts festival every spring. A community fridge is just that… it is a fridge that is located in a neighborhood and its motto is Take what you need and leave what you have. So, for example, if you were going on holiday and had six eggs and a head of lettuce you hadn’t eaten, you could leave it in the fridge… and if you were