We have a new fridge.  I know that it looks remarkably like the old fridge, but it has an A+ energy rating and a good seal, and so should keep fridge temperatures more even and save energy.  Thank you to the Coop for the donation that enabled us to buy the fridge.  Next we’ll be getting shelving to fit next to the beautiful new fridge…

… and today we got about 20 packs of blueberries from Banbury Food for Charities, yum.

Please let me know if you can use the old fridge, which is serviceable if not quite as lovely as our new one.

The network of community fridges is launched today!

The Botley fridge is thriving.  We got lots of food today courtesy of the Banbury Aldi and Morrisons which had so much bread and veg that we couldn’t get rid of it all in Banbury.  Lucky we got a transparent bread box to put on top of the fridge, or it wouldn’t all have fit.

The Coop gave us £250 to spend on a new fridge, since the seal on the current one isn’t good.  The new fridge is arriving on 8 August.

Today is the beginning of week 10 of the community fridge.  I picked up a large tray of food from Tesco, and brought with me some tins of soup, chocolate sauce, and bread from last week that I had frozen.  All of it went in one hour to ‘people in need’: one to a woman who also has a teenage daughter, and one to a woman with four people to feed.  I’m delighted.  The fridge is doing just what it’s supposed to do.

The fridge is getting food twice a week from Tesco/FareShare, and we hope to start getting deliveries from the Coop soon.  The paperwork is all going well, although (unsurprisingly) a lot of the food that is taken isn’t recorded.  It’s no real problem unless we have to recall an item.  The volunteer team that keeps the fridge clean is wonderful.

The good news is that the fridge is catering to at least ten people ‘in need’, including rough sleepers, people on benefits, and people who have taken the bus just to get food from the fridge.  Also Rev Sykes had the idea of including a board with information about where people can get other forms of assistance, plus some print-outs of the same.  So far, four of the print-outs have been taken.  This shows that, even in a relatively well-off area like West Oxford, people are struggling to get by.

Finally, we have been contacted by several other groups who are thinking of setting up community fridges.  We have sent them all our health and safety information, have talked to them about what has worked (and what hasn’t) in Botley, and we wish them all the best with their fridges.

You may have found this site having seen the Botley community fridge on ITV or having heard about it on JackFM.  This set of blogs talks about how the fridge was set up.  Please click here to find out how the fridge works.  We recently got a five star ranting from environmental health which we’re very proud of.  Also consider ‘liking’ the community fridge’s Facebook page.  Contact riki@phonecoop.coop or 07759 135811 if you want to know more.

We picked up our first batch of food from Tesco yesterday.  It is only meant to go to people in need, at our Mon & Sat 9-10am sessions.  Any food left over goes either to other people in need or to O’Hanlon House (the homeless shelter).

The environmental health officer visited last Thursday, and was impressed with our paperwork and the daily cleaning of the fridge.  Thank you so much to our excellent team of fridge cleaners!

She asked us to change a few things, notably to let the disinfectant spray sit for 5 minutes; to use paper towels to dry the fridge after cleaning; to check for pests daily; and to revise some bits of paperwork.  I will post the revised volunteer information on the website.

We could still use one or two fridge users who are willing to talk on camera about why they use the fridge and how the experience has been for them so far.  If you are interested, please email riki@phonecoop.coop or leave a message on 07759 135811.