april, 2021
Event Details
The Friends of Chinatown announced a Chinatown Community Fridge in collaboration with the amazing Community Fridges Toronto team and our friends at Send It Courier located at 138 D’Arcy St.
Send it Courier is a worker owned & operated bike courier service in Chinatown. CFTO is a mutual aid, community run initiative with a network of fridges and pantries for community members to “take what you need, leave what you can”.
This is a small grocery list of culturally specific foods and personal favs for the Chinatown community, but this list is not exhaustive-please feel free to stock the fridge with delicious things that you want to share with our community:
PRODUCE
Choi (green leafy vegetables)
of all kinds
Napa cabbage, flat cabbage,
other cabbages
Shiitake mushrooms, Oyster
mushrooms, enoki mushrooms
Chinese pears, Pomelos,
Papaya, Mango, Longans,
lychees, persimmon
Herbs like thai basil, mint,
cilantro
Daikon (white radish)
Turnips
Taro, potatoes
Bitter melons
Garlic
Onions, green onions/scallion,
shallots, leeks, Chinese chives
Winter melon
Lotus root
Ginger
Tomatoes
Carrots
Asian eggplant
Chayote
OTHER PERISHABLES
Vitasoy / soy milk
Tofu (soft, fried, firm, silken,
all kinds)
Eggs
Fish balls
Kimchi (pre-made)
Dried chinese sausage
Ba Bao Zhou
COMMUNITY FRIDGE TORONTO CHINATOWN GROCERY LIST – DRIED GOODS
Rice,
white/brown/wild/glutino
us
Noodles of all kinds, dried
or fresh
Dried or fresh rice noodles
MSG
Soy sauce, oyster sauce
Hot sauce, fish sauce,
black bean sauce, Sichuan
chili bean paste
Black vinegar
Cooking wine
(Shaoxing/rice)
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Dried tofu skin
Dried shrimp
Rice paper wraps
Sesame oil, vegetable oil,
peanut oil
Chili oil
Japanese Curry Cubes (i.e.
golden curry)
Dried wood ear fungus
Dried tong sui ingredients (goji
berries, logan, red dates, lotus
seeds, snow fungus)
Preserved egg and century egg
Seaweed (nori, kombu)
Spices (Sichuan peppercorn,
star anise, cloves, 5-spice
powder, cinnamon, white
pepper)
Chili flakes, dried whole chilis
Fermented vegetables (pickled
mustard greens, pickled
mustard tuber, zha cai, yacai)
Glutinous rice flour
Potato starch, corn starch
Toasted sesame seeds
Sesame paste
Roasted peanuts
COMMUNITY FRIDGE TORONTO CHINATOWN GROCERIES AND STORES
Kai Wei Supermarket (253 Spadina Ave)
Hua Sheng Supermarket (299 Spadina Ave)
Lucky Moose Food Mart (393 Dundas St W)
Yong Xing (70 Huron St)
Support the women selling vegetables at the corner of Dundas and Spadina
If you are interested in volunteering to help clean/check in on the fridge, please fill out this form:
About CFTO
CFTO is a volunteer-driven, Toronto-based community initiative with a network of fridges and pantries that offer free food to combat food insecurity. Started in response to the growing and deepening need emerging from COVID-19 and seeing the rise of encampments in the city, CFTO aims to provide fresh food and staples for free, in community fridges and pantries. We are a network of volunteers, business owners, and community builders mobilizing to provide hubs for mutual aid to occur, where community members can support others directly without intervention and outside of traditional charity models. CFTO is not a charity and to date has operated completely on generous in-kind contributions from the community. We’ve received donated fridges, food from countless individuals, grocers, bakers, farmers and not-for-profits, and meals from restaurants, menstrual products from community groups, and distribution support.
The fridges operate under a “take what you need, leave what you don’t” philosophy, where necessities like fresh produce, whole meals, pantry goods and personal care items can be accessed at any time of day, no questions asked, without enrolling in a program, and free from the stigma associated with food insecurity. We do not police who is able to access food, how much of it or how often. Fridges and pantries are cleaned and sanitized daily by a team of community volunteers. All five Community Fridges are depleted and replenished multiple times per day, showing both the great need, as well as the support from countless individuals, businesses and organizations who contribute to fill fridges daily.