Public Health could shut down unsanctioned free food pantries

Many in Cambridge were saddened the week before Christmas when a free food pantry on Jarvis Street was ordered shut down by the City of Cambridge. 

Not only was the city claiming the pantry set up by Audrey and Nicholas Hill was on public property, but a bylaw officer told the homeowners they were in violation of regional public health guidelines. 

In the week that followed the controversy, CambridgeToday confirmed with Waterloo Region Public Health that these types of free food pantries, while a convenience to some and a necessity to others, are not recommended due to possible tampering and contamination of the food. 

Julie Sawatzky, founder of the 519 Community Collective, is an expert when it comes to giving back to the community and fears that with all the recent attention given these pantries, others around the region could get shut down despite the good intentions of their owners. 

"We haven't had any issues with public health because we did our research before hand and made sure that all pantries are located on private property and we did a lot of preliminary work before we installed any of them at all," Sawatzky said over the phone. 

"We also follow all of the guidelines that they have set out for us and we have a volunteer network that checks the pantries regularly." 

Sawatzky adds the organization gets health inspections done on its pantries every six months. 

Over the past several years, the 519 Community Collective has been operating food pantries and fridges across the region and while Sawatzky thinks what is happening in Cambridge is a shame, she said it's not uncommon in this line of work.

During the early years of the group, there were many things Sawatzky had to figure out and she's hoping there can be an easy fix for with the Hills' pantry, including moving it back from the sidewalk onto private property. 

The head of bylaw for Cambridge, John Mattocks, said in a previous interview with CambridgeToday that one of the best options for the Jarvis Street pantry is to be relocate it, but warned public health would have to conduct its own investigation into the matter. 

Public health did not respond to questions about its investigation into the Jarvis Street pantry. 

Audrey Hill said they were given until Dec. 31 to move the structure onto their own property. The issue for Hill is she is unsure where her property starts and the city's ends. 

"They have yet to provide us with a proper survey detailing where our property even begins," Hill said. "The last communication from John Mattocks was on Dec. 20. No other department or official has contacted me." 

Jarvis Street is different than most places in the city because the city claims to own a right of way that stretches about 10 feet into the Hills' front yard. 

"There's a lot of things we didn't think of at first that we learned as we went along, but one of the main things is that is has to be on private property and not on a boulevard that is also owned by the city," Sawatzky said. 

Aside from ensuring the free little pantries are constructed on private land, she warns anyone who wants to set up a pantry to reach out to the region and make sure what they are providing is safe for everyone to consume.

Even if the food items offered are non-perishable, they can be vulnerable to tampering, she says. 

Public health recommends that if anyone wants to support these types of initiatives to make sure the food is store-bought, packaged, tamper-proof and non-perishable.