On Tuesday evening, a valuable piece of the North Central neighbourhood was lost after the community fridge went up in flames. “Honestly, I was shocked about it,” said Noelle Seidlikoski, who is one of the volunteers who runs the fridge. “I was shocked and saddened just simply because there are a lot of people who use this resource in the community.” The fridge was about to hit its fifth-year anniversary. Many grocery stores and residents contribute to the fridge. Just down Dewdney Ave, Indigenous Christian Fellowship is a big supplier of the fridge. “There always seems to be food coming there, and there always seems to be people just waiting there for the food,” said Joe Elkerton, the executive director at the ICF. “You can see them sitting by the curb or nearby waiting to see what comes or what’s being unloaded that day.” Moving from Toronto in July, Elkerton has been impressed with Regina’s willingness to give, especially to those who are homeless. “I don’t recall ever seeing anything like this there [in Toronto],” he said. “So it seemed like a unique thing to happen in Regina and it was interesting that people would just kind of leave stuff out. It was kind of almost an honour system.” This is not the only time that a community fridge has been set on fire, however, as the fridge in the Cathedral area also burned in September of 2024. “It’s such a valuable kind of tool in the neighbourhood to get food into people’s hands and for people who maybe don’t generally go to food banks. It’s this expectation of you just to survive for a couple more days.” Currently, there’s only one reported community fridges left in the city, with the Heritage Community Fridge located on 12th avenue. “Obviously our hope is always to take this loss and stay strong and keep moving forward. I mean, there’s a lot of people that rely on the support,” said Seidlikoski. Seidlikoski said they’ll look to rebuild another fridge in the same spot. The Regina Fire Department says the cause of the burn is unknown and the fire is still under investigation.
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