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.
#freeFridge #foodScarcity #foodSecurity #postScarcity #solarPunk #mutualAid
I'm starting up a Food Rescue program in my town.
The idea is that restaurants and stores throw away good food every night. Food rescue (also known as "gleaning") is where a person (Food Rescue Hero or Gleaner) goes to stores/restaurants and takes the good food that would otherwise be thrown out and provides it to hungry folks (either distributed centrally through a food pantry, decentrally through a free fridge / community pantry, or peer-to-peer directly to a person or family).
I'm currently researching tracking and coordination apps (such as foodrescue.us and others) but in the process of doing this I found myself at a local donut shop asking if they had 5-gallon food safe buckets that they could give away for hydroponics (i had received a tip!). They said they did and we started talking about food rescue. They said they had tried to donate their unsold donuts to a couple of pantries but no one could ever pick them up. I told them I would.
...and look what they provided!!!
My first food rescue, y'all!!!
3 dozen donuts!
I ran them straight to the free fridge! They can do this every night!!!
So cheers to Freddy Donuts in Fredericksburg, Virginia!
#foodRescue #freeFridge #communityPantry #foodSecurity #mutualAid #solarPunk
Folks have asked me how to find and build community.
Here is a very pragmatic and approachable way to find the community in your local town or neighborhood.
A little of bit of the concept with a focus on praxis.
So if you're new to community and mutual aid, don't think about what you can build. You're going to be wrong. People have already tried what you're thinking and dropped it back at version 0.3 - Everyone is on 8.2c right now.
So join what exists. Once you get good at it, then you can build out from there - with the knowledge of what is actually needed and works.
Quick note: Things are working. You're just not hearing about it via corporate news. Because it doesn't make those corps money. But its working and has been working. Glad you are joining us now! I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised as what exists around you and what you've been missing out on. Everyone joins at some point. Glad you're here now.
How do you find what exists?
The simple answer is, via community. But you haven't joined the community, so how do you find community without the community!
Since you're here, on the internet, let's start with the internet.
One thing: Folks building and running mutual aid aren't always building and running websites. They're meeting actual people doing physical things in the world. So their websites suck. Also, putting things out publicly runs the risk of inviting the nose of town government and their police forces. Sometimes posting publicly is a BAD IDEA. So they don't. You understand OpSec. They understand it better.
But, you certainly can start on the internet to find a "doorway".
Mutual Aid and community is DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT from charities/non-profits. I won't go into it here, but the two (mutual aid and charities/non-profits) aren't the same and actually opposed to each other.
Buuuuuut.....
Folks overlap between the two.
So I might focus on mutual aid, but I'll work with some charities because their apparatus furthers a mutual aid goal in the immediacy.
With that in mind, you can search out charities on the internet. They are well established there and are often upheld by local govt and churches. So they're protected.
Certainly go find some charities that align with your "one thing" (the thing you'll focus on now until you learn about more).
The big thing though, is the charity is not the goal. The people that work there are the goal. You are building a network. So go and meet people but BE FUCKING CHILL about your goals. You start spouting off mutual aid and bad things happen. So just be quiet and listen (this being quiet and listening is going to be your main skill to develop for a long while... so embrace it now).
You'll mostly find old boomers in retirement and religious folks with some politicians. They are charity folks. Great. But you're looking for folks that don't fit those molds. You're looking for the hippies, the socialists, the anarchists, the folks who have grown up poor and now have some means. "One of these things is not like the other". Find the anomalies and follow their lead.
You're going to sit in these charities for months while you meet people. Listen to "small talk". If it's Jesus focused, just smile and nod and praise god.
But if it's apparatus building and working with other groups, those are the conversations you want to join in on.
I'll say that again:
If the conversation is about WORKING WITH OTHER GROUPS on shared goals... get in on that. I don't care if its other charities. Get in on it.
After a while, you'll start meeting folks that are building real mutual aid. Learn the initiatives in your area and you'll find and settle into the groups that are doing work but not advertising on social media about it.
So.
Where to start?
Pick one of the following areas (there are more, but these are entry points):
- Food.
- Homeless outreach.
- Literacy / schooling.
- Political access and voting.
Just pick one area and find groups that do that thing. Don't worry about picking the right one. You're going to be moving around for a bit while you learn, so its fine. They all flow.
For Food: Find your local Food Bank and Food Pantries. Feeding America is a good start. Look there. Food Banks need lots of volunteers. Find a thing you can do and do it. Local churches act as Food Pantries. Go to those and help hand out food. If you're really lucky, find a place that makes and serves hot food. DO THAT!!! You'll get real close to mutual aid right away.
For Homeless outreach, look up local shelters - sure. Shelters tend TO ABSOLUTELY SUCK!!! So your mileage may vary. Look for places that gather up clothes and coats and hand them out. Look for places that serve the homeless communities and do that.
For Literacy and schooling, look up various elementary schools, libraries, and the same. After school programs for children. Boys and Girls clubs and the like as well. If you have kids, talk with your school counselors and ask them about the school programs that serve under-privileged families.
For political access and voting, don't join a political party. Instead find local orgs that focus on registering people for voting. The NAACP shines in this. You don't have to be black to join the NAACP. Local DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) are also a good place to look.
Great. So how do you find them?
A quick note on internet searches just to get it out of the way: Search for "city or town name" and:
- "food bank"
- "food pantry"
- "mutual aid"
- "after school programs"
- "voter advocacy"
- "homeless shelter"
- "women's shelter"
- "town resources"
- "library"
On that last note: The BEST PLACE TO START is your local library.
Just go hang out in the library for a while. They post A LOT of stuff for the town. Classes, resources, groups, events, etc. And by "post" I actually mean physical posts. Fliers on the wall and on physical "announcement boards". The librarians themselves are great. Just ask them. They're there to help. Literally.
In fact, don't approach looking for these groups as a volunteer (I hate that word). Don't approach them as a person looking to contribute and build.
Instead, approach these groups as a person who could benefit from them. So for food, ask the librarians to help you find "food pantries for distributions". The libraries are geared to help the community. So get all the info on that, and then flip it around and go to the food pantries and ask how you can help.
So. Internet search for groups is an okay start. But go to the local library and ask.
All you need is ONE WAY in. Once you find some sort of group doing something - anything... go there. Then meet the people. Find a stray community worker that also works there and learn from them. Then find out about the other groups that meet and are building and doing. Go to those in person meetings and spread from there.
(Ask questions in this thread and I and others will give you ideas.)
Also, if you need help finding those initial groups, DM me with your town name and I'll give you a list of groups that you can start with.
#solarPunk #mutualAid #community
Update on the local Seed Library (see previous posts in this thread for background)!
We've got official approval to start building it out!
We'll start the official planning, building, and then community awareness initiatives and concurrent programming and training!
Yay free seeds for the town!
Yay free classes on gardening and hydroponics!
Gardening is one thing. Community is another thing entirely.
Build community. Feed each other.
#solarPunk #hydroponics #indoorGardening #gardening #urbanGardening
THEY DID IT!!!!
My local library built the seed library!
The local Master Gardeners provided a lot of the intitial seeds (oh my gosh we are stocked!!!). They used an old card catalogue to store them. Today's the kickoff!
The idea is you "check out seeds" from the library, plant/grow/harvest, let some go to seed, then "return the seeds" back to the library!
Free seeds for everyone!
Editing to add my library's Seed Library web site: https://www.librarypoint.org/seed-library/
#solarPunk #postScarcity #gardening #mutualAid #seedLibrary #earthDay
The boy in the blue cap.
The girl in the red coat.
Whew! Careful out there today.
There's a lot of people in my timeline boosting and posting misinformation (and disinformation).
(eg that McAfee unwittingly posted an AI image of a woman with three hands - even though that was the point of the ad campaign... selling AI detection.
or that Madonna has rejected a $500 million dollar deal from Elon Musk)
Everyone can fall for misinfo. If you read a claim - ESPECIALLY IF YOU AGREE WITH IT OR GET JOY FROM IT - please verify it before you post or boost it.
Dont boost until you validate.
Dont boost until you validate.
Dont boost until you validate.
(and unboost or delete the post if you later find it to be fake)
Posting this as a personal reminder. I make mistakes too and have accidentally boosted false info in the past. Bonus points for anyone who sends this post back to me in the future when I make that mistake again π
There's always discussion around streaming services, algorithms, surveillance and advertisements, funneling money into big corps etc.
But I've been trying to find ways to seek more entertainment within physical spaces. Within community.
We have a small community theater near me. Multiple troupes, comedians, and improv groups use it.
I've seen broadway plays, classic and new, there. I've seen standup comedies. This weekend, I'm going to see an improv special.
The tickets are very low cost. No one is becoming a millionaire. And the cast is often made up of local folks who do this as passion projects.
The audience is so small and close that you become part of the show. Your vibes and energy directly affect the cast. If you are on fire, they are on fire. If you are down, it reflects in their performance. We are humans in community and can feel each other.
I'm going with friends, to this improv show. There are two showings. But its improv. So while there is a centralized theme, theres no set in stone script. Watch it twice and the performance is distinctly different. The first nights are often rough but frenetic. The second nights are smoothed out with experience. Both have a vibrant uniqueness about it.
I still watch streaming services. I still put on Kanopy or Hoopla with my library card. But going out to a community play is such a rich experience that I find every opportunity to do so.
#solarPunk #communityTheater #communityTheatre #Theater #Theatre
There are a lot of resources on Free Fridges and Community Pantries.
The Freedge group has a wonderful site that has resources for finding fridges in your neighborhood or installing new ones:
- Freedge: https://freedge.org/
- Starting a Free Fridge in your Town: https://freedge.org/freedge-yourself/
- Map of current Free Fridges: https://freedge.org/locations/
Some folks have had questions or concerns as it relates to Free Fridges. I have posted my answer to a couple of them below:
Worry about folks "taking advantage" of free food
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113765243630873685
Worry about tainted food being placed in the fridge?
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113765319396269374
Do free fridge initiatives even work?
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113766774842784296
I'll add to this post in the future if I find other resources.
#freeFridge
#foodScarcity
#foodSecurity
#postScarcity
#solarPunk
#mutualAid
Well this is amazing!!!
We just got our first host that wants to put up a Free Fridge!!!!
I was going to put in a post of how we have multiple leads out and various irons in the fire, but dang, this one came quick! We've been talking to various folks for the past couple of months and there have been various interest, but nothing has been set in stone yet.
So, I posted a couple weeks ago how our Free Fridge and Food Rescue group got featured in the local town paper ( https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/114949623055200806 ) . Turns out various folks read it and were interested, both in the food rescue and in the free fridge aspect.
We have one free fridge in town hosted by a local community garden, but that is completely run by them. We help keep it clean and we help stock and utilize it, but my group was created to build other free fridges throughout town.
And sure enough, a local church read the article and came to our monthly meeting. They invited us to go to their church and tour it and see what they were doing.
They're a small church that is heavy in working with the Food Bank and doing distributions. They recently received a generous donation with the request that the money be used for community service. They're going to source the refrigerator, pantry, and even build out an area to provide cover and a walkway to it.
The location is great. It's accessible via public transit (such that we have here). It's decently walkable and the city is putting in improvements in the next year. They have a good parking lot and a location that is accessible to the public 24/7.
So I've put together a little project plan:
- Go onsite and create rough site plan: Designate location. Measure out area for concrete slab, awning, and potentially walkway
- Get estimates for outside electrical outlet installation, concrete slab / walkway construction, and awning construction
- Contact appropriate municipality / county to sort out any requirements or approvals
- Complete construction
- Source and install fridge and pantry
- Open to community & advertise new location
The head of their food missions has already sourced and purchased the refrigerator. So wow. Next step will be to go back onsite and do a rough site plan. Basically measure out the spot and sort out the concrete pad dimensions.
This is the first time I've done this... so I'll be learning along the way and documenting it for other sites (hopefully) in the future.
This is amazing. Our first fridge for our group and the second for my region!!!
#freeFridge #foodScarcity #foodSecurity #postScarcity #solarPunk #mutualAid
Reposting:
Global Call for Personal or Archival Footage of Thich Nhat Hanh
Dear friends, Speakit Productions, the team behind the film "Walk With Me", is currently in production on Interbeingβthe first authorised biographical film about ThαΊ§yβs life.
As part of this project, we are reaching out to the global Plum Village community to help uncover rare or unseen archival footage of ThαΊ§y from the 1950s through to 2010. The film team is particularly interested in footage from Vietnam, the US, Europe, and other parts of the world where ThαΊ§y travelled and taught. If you, or someone you know, have any old recordingsβwhether it's Super 8 reels, video tapes, or hidden away digital filesβthey would love to hear from you.
Please fill in a short form at https://bit.ly/TNHfootage with your details and information about the footage, and a member of the team will be in touch. Alternatively, you can reach them directly by email at: production+footage@speakit.org Interbeing is being created in close collaboration with Plum Village and will be released internationally in autumn 2026 to mark the centenary of ThαΊ§yβs birth.
Thank you for helping honor ThαΊ§yβs life and teachings.
Original Post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/plumvillage/comments/1mibv7t/global_call_for_personal_or_archival_footage_of/
#Buddhism #plumVillage #thichNhatHanh #buddhist
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.
#freeFridge #foodScarcity #foodSecurity #postScarcity #solarPunk #mutualAid
There are a lot of resources on Free Fridges and Community Pantries.
The Freedge group has a wonderful site that has resources for finding fridges in your neighborhood or installing new ones:
- Freedge: https://freedge.org/
- Starting a Free Fridge in your Town: https://freedge.org/freedge-yourself/
- Map of current Free Fridges: https://freedge.org/locations/
Some folks have had questions or concerns as it relates to Free Fridges. I have posted my answer to a couple of them below:
Worry about folks "taking advantage" of free food
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113765243630873685
Worry about tainted food being placed in the fridge?
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113765319396269374
Do free fridge initiatives even work?
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/113766774842784296
I'll add to this post in the future if I find other resources.
#freeFridge
#foodScarcity
#foodSecurity
#postScarcity
#solarPunk
#mutualAid
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.
#freeFridge #foodScarcity #foodSecurity #postScarcity #solarPunk #mutualAid
I'm at a point in life where I crave stories that lack dramatic conflict.
I'm tired of fighting and of struggle. I'm extremely tired of violence and dystopia. And I want to rest in moments of escape and solitude within books and movies to where I can just exist and hold that existence without fear or anxiety.
I want the lofi of a book or movie.
There aren't many examples of that.
Becky Chambers' Monk and Robot Duology is one such example of low to no conflict stories and is a favorite of mine.
Chef (2014) comes close to where all the strife, such as it is, is at the beginning and the rest of the movie is the main character living life and growing closer to those he loves.
There are others. The New World (2005) though showing conflict throughout has a quiet beauty and approach to the story as to be atmospherically aware with a deep stillness.
Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to watch the movie Perfect Days (2023). Its a moment in time of a man living his life. He has very normal experiences going to work and interacting with the people around him. There is sadness and pain some times. But so much joy and acceptance and stillness.
It is mundane. (How I long for the mundane.)
If you get a chance to watch it, do so. It's available on Kanopy for free with your library card. Its also on other streaming services.
#solarpunk #cozyStories #bookstodon #movies
https://www.kanopy.com/video/14800624
After a moment of reflection, I very specifically do not enjoy saccharine or "feel good" movies.
And while I enjoy comedies, I'm not looking for pick me up movies or anything similar.
Just quiet movies. No or low conflict movies. But simple stories or atmospheric movies with calm peace.
Lofi music
Certain Japanese scroll art (I need to dive into that more)
Cozy and Hygge, Hobbit aesthetics
Some solarpunk
That sort of thing
I'm at a point in life where I crave stories that lack dramatic conflict.
I'm tired of fighting and of struggle. I'm extremely tired of violence and dystopia. And I want to rest in moments of escape and solitude within books and movies to where I can just exist and hold that existence without fear or anxiety.
I want the lofi of a book or movie.
There aren't many examples of that.
Becky Chambers' Monk and Robot Duology is one such example of low to no conflict stories and is a favorite of mine.
Chef (2014) comes close to where all the strife, such as it is, is at the beginning and the rest of the movie is the main character living life and growing closer to those he loves.
There are others. The New World (2005) though showing conflict throughout has a quiet beauty and approach to the story as to be atmospherically aware with a deep stillness.
Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to watch the movie Perfect Days (2023). Its a moment in time of a man living his life. He has very normal experiences going to work and interacting with the people around him. There is sadness and pain some times. But so much joy and acceptance and stillness.
It is mundane. (How I long for the mundane.)
If you get a chance to watch it, do so. It's available on Kanopy for free with your library card. Its also on other streaming services.
#solarpunk #cozyStories #bookstodon #movies
https://www.kanopy.com/video/14800624
On the Post-Scarcity Food front. My local group, which covers Free Fridges, Food Rescue, and Indoor Food Gardening - we just got interviewed my our town's local newspaper.
Which is cool.
We're starting to get noticed and more and more folks are joining the group organically.
The group currently has around 65 members in the discord chat. 80ish members (much overlap) on the email newsgroup. We have around 10 folks that have signed up for the food rescue app. And we get 5 to 15 folks in person and via zoom for the monthly meetings. We have a core very active group of around 6 folks with lots of folks hanging in the wing to help as needed.
And we have intentionally NOT recruited or let folks know about us (beyond a couple local events), as we wanted to get some things in place first.
I wanted to make sure that volunteers weren't met with a ghost town, right. I wanted to get the infrastructure in place first.
Well it's in place.
And we have some initial food rescues. And some more coming down the pipe. And some irons in the fire for new free fridge placements.
And the library and food bank is asking us to put together coursework and programming around growing your own food indoors.
So. For as much as I'm fucking nervous, lol. It's time to really start growing.... fuuuuck.
Ha! Funny thing. I was arguing caution and hoping for another month or two before really branching out and a fellow coordinator pushed back and said, fuck that, let's go now!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!! I'm being scared and I've been called out, HAHAHA!!! Which is good. I needed a swift kick in the ass. (honestly, if I hung back too much, this other person would have just gone ahead and done it. I am NOT the only decision maker here, even if I was the one to get it started)..
Alright. Fine. Let's do it, HAHAHAHA!!!!!
Oooooh.... this is happening. Shiiiit!!!
Failure is scary. But success is downright terrifying.
#solarPunk #mutualAid #foodSecurity #freeFridge #foodRescue
The article for my town's Free Fridge, Food Rescue, and Indoor Food Gardening group just came out!
You can read the article here: https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/article_49e5b911-4f2a-41a1-b735-a0ddc09e3937.html
(Non-paywalled archive: https://archive.is/AjYvg )
Goes into detail on our efforts to build out Free Fridges throughout town, conduct Food Rescue, and to help folks garden their food indoors. Even interviews the local food bank and discusses our cooperative partnerships with them as well!
#solarPunk #foodRescue #indoorGardening #hydroponics #foodSecurity #foodBank #freeFridge #mutualAid
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