Donate To The Fridges
The Fridges
Anyone is welcome to access the fridges or drop off food at any time – there’s no registration required.
Have a bulk donation or want to set up recurring donations from your business?
Donation Guidelines
Below is a list of acceptable and unacceptable food for the fridges. Please review this list before making your donation and let us know if you have any questions!
Accepted items:
- Fresh produce
- Meals/goods from certified kitchens (labelled with kitchen name, ingredients and/or allergens, prepared and/or best before date
- Sealed PPE and hygiene supplies
Accepted items, if commercially packaged and labelled with best before date:
- Bread and baked goods
- Dairy and alternatives
- Frozen foods
- Eggs
- Cooked/cured meat
- Drinks (non-alcoholic)
- Dry and canned goods
- Pet food
Unaccepted items:
- Raw meat/seafood (fresh or frozen)
- Home-made food or leftovers
- Rotting or wilted food
- Unsealed food or hygiene supplies (unboxed and individually sealed is great though)!
- Items past expiry
- Alcohol or medications
- Severely dented cans
- Ungraded eggs
- Clothing, books, or housewares
- Excess packaging/waste (please break down multi-pack/bulk goods [i.e. cases of drinks or bags of fruit, and remove waste]).
Stocking Tips
Keeping the fridges tidy and in good order is important to us and users of the fridges! Please keep the following stocking tips in mind when making your donation:
- COVID safety: Please wear a mask, allow space between others, and use hand sanitizer at the fridge.
- Remove any “NO, THANKS” items
- Split up a bunch or bag of food to give more people access (e.g. breaking bananas from a bunch, removing plastic packaging from apples or a box from granola bars).
- Please feel free to leave a few grocery bags.
- Store eggs on the lowest shelf of the fridge, as per
- Public Health guidelines.
- Make sure nothing’s left on top of the fridge, or on the ground:
- No space? Please come back later or take items to another location.
- Keep safety, respect, and physical accessibility in mind.
Donation Suggestions
Below is a list of popular items we’d love to see getting donated to all fridges:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Fresh, frozen, or garden-grown
- Bread and other baked goods
- Milk
- Dairy, alternative, or canned (evaporated)
- Cheese, eggs and yogurt
- Frozen prepared meals
- Juice boxes and water bottles
- Grab-and-go items
- Granola bars, fruit cups, pop-top cans, crackers, muffins, bananas
- Freezies, popsicles
- Coffee and tea
- Cereal
- Cookies, candy and treats
- Sauces, spices and condiments
- Baking supplies
- Flour, butter, sugar
- Pet food
- Baby formula and diapers
- Personal care supplies
- Soap, deodorant, toothbrushes/paste, menstrual and incontinence supplies
- Naloxone kits
Fundraise For Groceries Or Gift Cards
While Community Fridges HamOnt is not a charity and does not currently collect monetary donations, residents and businesses are welcome to independently fundraise in support of the community fridges.
We encourage you to shop with your accumulated funds and drop donations off directly at the fridges. Alternatively, we gratefully accept donations of gift cards that our team can use to purchase groceries or maintenance supplies. Gift cards and inquiries can be directed to our email.
Here are some ideas for gift cards we can utilize:
Canadian Tire
Physical card only – no online option
Have any questions about donating gift cards?
Partner With Us
Set up recurring food donations from your business!
Consistent, recurring donations (or food rescues) from local businesses have a huge positive impact on the community fridges. Whether you have excess items left at the end of the day, or just want to help feed your community, we appreciate your partnership so much.
If you’re able to, you can drop off food at any fridge, any time – just make sure it follows our guidelines and that any prepared items are labelled with the prepared and/or best before date, allergens, and the name of your restaurant or certified kitchen.
Here’s how it typically works:
You contact us and let us know you’d like to set up a donation.
We work out a schedule with you that works for your business and our team.
Our volunteers pick up food from your location and disperse it to the fridges.
We share thanks for your donation on social media!
Do you need help getting food from your location to the fridges?
Thank you to our current recurring donors!
Host a food drive!
We love when schools, businesses, or events hold food drives in support of the community fridges. Some things to keep in mind:
Take a look at our donation guidelines before you get started to make sure you’re collecting items we can accept!
Often we find sticking to non-perishables and hygiene products is a good strategy for food drives, since you may not have resources to store refrigerated items.
Often we find sticking to non-perishables and hygiene products is a good strategy for food drives, since you may not have resources to store refrigerated items.
Need signage with our logo? Email us and we’ll set you up.
If you collect a large haul, you may want to consider dispersing your donation in phases, rather than filling the pantry to the brim one time. If you need help with storing or dispersing your food drive donation, get in touch.