Frigo provides alternative model
by Takeo Kushi
How useful would an organization that provides organic, fair-trade and bulk fruits, vegetables and grains at non-profit prices be? Or one that sells items from local and individual producers in the city and partners with a local organic farm? What about a community organization with an active volunteer-base, a tremendous diversity in clientele, and an open-access student space?
What if this organization already existed on campus?
It does: Le Frigo Vert. It is a different model of providing services altogether. It shuns traditional power structures, is politically active and above all promotes food accessibility and security. Its presence highlights the perverse condition in our society that eating a normal healthy diet is restrictively expensive while food that is killing us remains dirt cheap.
On Feb. 10, the Frigo, located on campus for over 15 years, approached the Concordia Student Union’s Council to ask to have a simple fee levy question placed on the upcoming referendum.
From the outset, however, it seemed as though the Frigo was forced into a defensive position. An institution that is well-known and tremendously valued by its members faced an adversarial, covert and frivolous opposition. The Council had members who were supportive and clearly stated the values they believed the Frigo provided. Those opposed to the initiative aired their opposition only behind closed doors and without giving reason, at least in a public setting. Indeed, pleas to hear why exactly the measure was opposed went unanswered: those against it had the political privilege of not having to publicly produce a reason to defeat the motion.
At an emergency Council meeting scheduled the following week to confront the very same issue, a motion to—once again—go into closed session failed by a tie: the vote and debate had to be public. That hair-split decision did the trick: the air was taken out of the opposition and they could no longer hide their lack of a credible argument and the motion, voted on publicly for the first time, passed unanimously with two notable abstentions.
It is striking to think that only the veil of secrecy stood in the way of the motion getting to the greater student body. Relegating issues such as these—in which the employees’, producers’ and the customer base’s livelihoods play a key role—to closed doors and with questionable reasoning threatens all fee levy organizations.
—Takeo Kushi,
Finance
The Link Volume 31 Issue 01