I'm looking to build out the Free Fridge & Community Pantries in my town.

I'll continue to update this thread with my progress.

So, the idea is to have nodes throughout town that allow folks to "Give a Food, Take a Food". Similar to "Little Free Libraries" are to books. Folks who have extra food can drop it off there, folks who need food can grab it there.

The focus here is mutual aid, not charity. So, absolutely, if you are food insecure or hungry, utilize it, right. Beyond that though, this is a great piece of infrastructure to share extra food with your neighbors. I will go down to the free fridge we have in town, drop off some of my extra produce that I have grown, and then pick up a can of black beans if I need it for dinner that night. We're meant to contribute AND utilize the free fridge.

There are many ways to create and maintain free fridges, from something as simple as a small box or outdoor cabinet on up to full stand up refrigerators and freezers with an outdoor pantry.

In general, you want it to be a couple of things:
- Accessible to the public
- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Unmanned
- No restrictions on who can utilize it or take food from it - it should NOT employ any means-testing
- Receive shelf stable food and/or refrigerated food and/or frozen food

Further, you can break up the different groups that are involved in the free fridge:
- The Host
- The Maintainers
- The Community

The Host - provides a location for the fridge and pantry to be installed and accessed. They also provide electricity to power the fridge/freezer

The Maintainers - this would be my group. We source, install, maintain, repair, and clean the fridge, freezer, and pantry.

The Community - contributes food to and utilizes food from the fridge and pantry. This is important. While the host provides the site and the Maintainers keep it operational, neither one has to stock food or coordinate utilization. The community does it themselves.

Having it split up like this is nice. Can folks from the Host group maintain it? Certainly. But extrapolating it allows for ease of use.

So. Keeping it stocked is up to the community. I've seen it stocked by gardeners who have extra produce (Zucchini turns folks into socialists is the joke! You just grow sooooo much you end up LOSING FRIENDS when you try to push it off on others!). I've seen it stocked through Food Rescue efforts. Some families buy extra from the grocery store and this is a great place to drop it off. I've even seen the local Food Bank drop off extra food when they had left overs from a food distribution.

Keeping it utilized is also easy. You don't want the fridge to stay stocked, right. You want it to stay in the fridge for as short a period of time as possible before someone comes and grabs it. Heck! I've seen a food rescue of fresh produce from a farmer's market vendor be dropped off at a free fridge and then claimed by several families even before it had a chance to be placed physically into the fridge! This is ideal. One fridge and pantry needs to serve the local neighborhood. That's many many families. It can only do so if its filled up and then utilized multiple times a day.

Next post, I'll put some resources on starting your own in your town.

@corbden "I've got a shorter list that's meant to be a mixtape played in order that tells an emotional story arc starting in the mid-twentieth century and ending some unknown time in the future. This was the starting list and the other grew from there."

1. VNV Nation - Foreword
2. A Perfect Circle - Imagine
3. Queen - Under Pressure - Remastered 2011
4. Pomplamoose - Big Yellow Taxi
5. Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
6. The Postal Service - Sleeping In - Remastered
7. Arcade Fire - Wake Up
8. Phoebe Bridgers - That Funny Feeling
9. VNV Nation - All Our Sins
10. India Ramey - King of the Ashes
11. Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain
12. Meg Barnhouse - All Will Be Well
13. VNV Nation - Resolution
14. The Decemberists - This Is Why We Fight
15. grandson - Die Young
16. Jewel - Hands
17. Puscifer - The Humbling River
18. Barry Manilow - One Voice
19. The Decemberists - Don't Carry It All
20. Thea Gilmore - Inch by Inch
21. Andra Day - Rise Up
22. Nina Simone - Revolution (Pts. 1 and 2)
23. Becky G - Bella Ciao
24. KOU - RIOT
25. Tom Morello - Hold The Line (feat. grandson)
26. Death Cab for Cutie - Grapevine Fires
27. Seeming - Goodnight London
28. R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
29. Craig Connelly - You Are Alive
30. Blue Öyster Cult - Dancin' In the Ruins
31. The Decemberists - After The Bombs
32. John Denver - Rhymes and Reasons - "Greatest Hits" Version
33. Live - The Dolphin's Cry
34. Gaia Consort - Move To The Country
35. The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Peaches
36. The Decemberists - Sons & Daughters
37. MGMT - Kids
38. Indigo Girls - Closer to Fine
39. Iris DeMent - Let the Mystery Be
40. Amy Steinberg - Exactly
41. Vienna Teng - Landsailor
42. John Lennon - Imagine - Remastered 2010
43. The 5th Dimension - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) - From the Musical "Hair"
44. Enigma - Return To Innocence
45. Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken
46. Talking Heads - (Nothing But) Flowers - 2005 Remaster
47. John Denver - Poems, Prayers and Promises
48. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds - 7" Edit
49. Hum - Green To Me
50. VNV Nation - Only Satellites
51. Highly Suspect - My Name Is Human
52. The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
53. VNV Nation - Perpetual

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Un8eqgCBenhljaLk25jvo?si=10cade86a5f2416b