Saint Joseph Community Fridge opens to public

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

A shed stocked with free food, winter wear, Bibles and more opened last weekend at St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster.
Students said it can help people in need know God’s love – and help the school too.
On Nov. 16 members of the school’s Eagles Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society, which is managing the “Saint Joseph Community Fridge,” put the first donations in the shed outside the school, with help from their adviser, Karen Lefebvre, and principal, Beth Boudreau.
The next day Father Grzegorz Chodkowski, pastor of St. Joseph Basilica and headmaster of the school, blessed the community fridge at a ribbon cutting. Eighth-grade honor society member Laura Ibrahim explained the project; students sang, “They’ll Know We are Christians” and “Let There be Peace on Earth”;  and Sen. Ryan Fattman presented a citation from the Massachusetts Senate expressing best wishes for the project’s success, Mrs. Boudreau reported. Gathered for the occasion were members of the school community.
On Nov. 18 and 19, the shed first opened, so people in need could help themselves to its contents. Mrs. Boudreau said she saw some food wrappers in the trash bin nearby, so people may have taken something and eaten it there.
For the safety of students, the shed is not open on school days but will be accessible to the public from 1 p.m. to dusk on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to dusk on Sundays, Mrs. Boudreau said.
The Webster-based Janet Malser Humanities Trust provided a grant to purchase the shed and the refrigerator and shelves inside it, she said. St. Joseph School alumnus Dave Laabs (1981) from The Airbrush Shack in Thompson, Connecticut, designed and donated a sign for it.
Students, their families and school staff donate non-perishable and refrigerated food, toiletries, hats, gloves, hand warmers, foot warmers, blankets, sleeping bags, and inspirational reading material with which to stock the shed. Parishioners will be invited to contribute too, Mrs. Boudreau said.
“We all want to help our community,” Laura told The Catholic Free Press. “I guess we figured that offering basic necessities to people who don’t have basic necessities is a way to help them out during the winter and help them see not all hope is lost. … Their situation is obviously not the easiest. We’re reassuring them God is still by their side.”
“We collect pocket-sized Bibles,” said Molly Hachigian, the other eighth-grade honor society member. “It’s a reminder: You’re not alone and people are here to help you get through this.”
“It makes me happy that we stopped and thought about … people that need more than we do,” Laura explained. “God also calls us to help them out.”
“We really should be thinking about others,” said Ayla Reed, a seventh-grade honor society member. “We are in a Catholic school.” Doing this project “supports how we are Christians … showing our faith in action. … Also, we show the younger kids … we can make the world a better place,” demonstrating right things to do in place of wrong things.
“We just forget that we’re really fortunate,” said Rosemary Basha, another seventh-grade honor society member. Doing a project like this “helps remind us that God still loves us, and we want to share that love with other people.”
“I feel bad for people who don’t have what we have,” said honor society member Faith Muga, also a seventh-grader. “I think this will really help them. … I think it will bring an even better name to our school. It will really show people that we do a lot of good things here.”
Seventh-grader and honor society member Liana Worth said later by telephone, “I think it’s a really good idea. Others want to help us” by donating. “Hopefully people use it so it doesn’t get wasted.”
Ayla said donations include non-perishable food that people who frequent the pantry can save for later, without needing to buy a refrigerator, and bottled water to add to powered milk.
“We’re donating lots of food for them because not everyone has money for food,” she said, adding, “They need food to live.”
Food is to include fresh vegetables and herbs grown in the school’s hydroponics program.  
Molly said her research found these statistics: there are about 1,500 homeless people in Worcester County, “over 550 are children under 18” and about 10 homeless people in Webster. So, some items stocked in the shed will be for children.
The idea for the community pantry came from two different projects, Mrs. Boudreau said.
“There’s a sleeping bag ministry at the United Church of Christ Federated” in Webster; the bedding is made for those in need, she said. St. Joseph’s National Junior Honor Society has collected donations of toiletries, winter wear and Bibles to accompany the sleeping bags.
That gave the school an idea to do something similar. So did a community refrigerator in Southbridge that Mrs. Boudreau heard about.
Mrs. Lefebvre said that students in grades 7 and 8 used to do community service by helping with free hot meals at the Federated Church, but that was stopped during COVID and has not resumed. So, the school figured there was a need for the community pantry.
“Our plan is to start small,” Mrs. Boudreau said. “It’s uncharted territory for us. ... It would be nice to see if we could add to it.”