Repair Café Toronto Is Making It Work
Story by: ELLISPark.co I Nov. 24, 2023
“Don’t toss it, fix it!” That’s one of the missions of grassroots group Repair Café Toronto, a collective of volunteers who are empowering communities by teaching them how to repair items that would ordinarily be thrown away. Instead of the original three “Rs” of reduce, reuse and recycle, it’s now reuse, repair and repurpose. Co-founded in 2013 by Wai Chu Cheng, sustainability specialist at Seneca College, and partners Paul Magder and Fern Mosoff, the organization was inspired by (but not affiliated with) the Repair Café Foundation in Amsterdam.
The repair clinics are free and taught by volunteer “fixers” who are either hobbyists – like Magder, a retired electronics technologist – or professionals in their area of repair expertise. Repair Café Toronto regularly offers pop-up drop-in events at local libraries and community centres. People can bring in broken household items to be repaired free of charge, from small appliances to computers, items of clothing and more. Fixers include experts like jewellery specialist Ken Vickerson, associate professor in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University, who has been volunteering with Repair Café since 2016.
Don’t have anything to repair? Not to worry. Repair Café Toronto is a fun and inclusive space where you can meet people and enjoy a cup of coffee – in a reusable cup, of course.
To learn more, go to repaircafetoronto.ca.
