FREE STORES

I can't tell you how lucky I was as a newly single mother to land in a community that has a free store. It made it easier to count the pennies and harder to part with them.

The free store in my neighbourhood functions like a huge community attic. If you put something there that your child has grown out of, you're very likely to see it on another kid at school a week later, even though you know that kid's parents could afford new stuff. Nothing is charged; everyone uses it, wealth or no wealth.

The most famous, and probably the first, free store in North America was started by The Diggers, a protest group active in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood in the 1960s. The Diggers actually took their name from a 17th century political movement in England in which hungry, disenfranchised people "dug" up the common lands to grow produce for themselves.

Today, free stores are perfect vehicles for a society in which there is just too much stuff floating around. Stuff we never needed, stuff we grew out of, stuff we ditched when we upgraded. According to SuperNaturale.com, a cool crafting/recycling group that is also an advocate for Baltimore's Free Store, there is a "free store phenomenon" growing in the United States. You can check out their site for an article on how to start a free store.

I found free stores to be such a great idea that I set out to list here every one I could find in Canada. For some reason, I thought I could just get on the phone and start calling around and somebody would have a list. Not so. There are not a lot of year round free stores in Canada. Indeed, the Salvation Army headquarters in Toronto had never even heard of free stores (although they said they sounded like a great idea.) I find all of this amazing considering that I grew up in a neighbourhood in Toronto in which every other house, including my own, had a basement with enough stuff to start a free store. And I don't think my neighbourhood was unique. That said, there are rotating free stores popping up, some of them run by students on university campuses, some run by churches. Others have been around for a while. Unfortunately, not enough.

If you know of a free store in Canada to add to this list, please leave a comment here or email me at news@canadiansinglemothers.com

FREE STORE LIST

Quebec
MONTREAL
Santropol Roulant; 4050 rue St. Urbain; 514-284-5662

Ontario
OSHAWA
LifeChurchOshawa - Quarterly free store; 871 Wilson Road, Oshawa; Next one to be announced; 905-571-6985
BURLINGTON
St. Christopher's Church; 662 Guelph Line, Burlington; 905-634-1809; Used to be Burlington Free Store
Aldershot Presbyterian Church, 9378 Park Road; Burlington; 905-632-2707
LONDON
LifeSpin; 866A Dundas St. East; 519-438-8676
PETERBOROUGH
The Free Market; 751 George St. N; 705-741-1208

Manitoba
WINNIPEG
University of Manitoba; run by University of Manitoba Recycling and Environmental Group; 204-474-9118

Alberta
EDMONTON

Earth's General Store; 10832 Whyte Avenue, Edmonton; 780-439-8725

British Columbia

VICTORIA - Single Parent Resource Centre, 602 Gorge Road East
GABRIOLA ISLAND - Tin Can Alley
CORTEZ ISLAND - Squirrel Cove Road
DENMAN ISLAND - Old School Centre
HORNBY ISLAND - Central Road

Yukon Territory
WHITEHORSE - Raven Recycling Society; located next to Recycling Center