At 9am today we took the “this is where the community fridge will be” sign off to reveal the “welcome to the Botley community fridge” sign.  We had two bunches of bananas, some lovely herbs, two loaves of bread, three bags of potatoes, and quite a lot of non-perishables available, some of which went immediately.  BBC Radio Oxford filmed the great event.  Now do come and visit the fridge: put food in and/or take food out!

Nearly invisible because the lighting was poor, but you’ll see John Clements of St. Peter & St. Paul Church with the (petite) community fridge in place in the fridge alcove.  Yessss!

The Church of St. Peter & St. Paul has kindly allowed the community fridge to be sited in one of its alcoves for a three month trial period.  First meeting will be Mon 27 Feb 5:45pm at the church.

The Community Action Group network will provide public liability insurance for the fridge.  I had to fill in a risk assessment form.  In case it’s of help to anyone else, here it is: cag-risk-assessment-for-botley-community-fridge

Found out that the church committee which needs to give the final yes/no to the Botley community fridge is meeting on the evening of 3 February.  Fingers crossed!

I have already bought a petite £30 fridge off Gumtree.  We can always scale this up if it goes ahead and is a roaring success.

I’m delighted to report that the Abundance Community Action Group (CAG) has offered to provide public liability insurance for the fridge in the short term.  In the longer term, the emerging Association of Botley Communities CAG has said that they are willing to be the fridge’s umbrella body, and to provide insurance through the CAG network.

Thank you very much to Dot (Abundance), Jade (Feeding the Gaps) and Chris (Assoc of Botley Comms) for solving one of the major headaches of this project.

I received the following helpful email from the South & Vale environmental health officer.  I am now ‘translating’ what that means into notes that will go on the Botley community fridge and will be handed out to local registered food businesses:

“Further to our recent telephone conversation regarding the community fridge, I can confirm that we recommend that only low risk, ambient stable foods are donated from members of the public.  This would also reflect the practices of two other community fridges that we are aware of that are operating elsewhere within the country.

With regards to your documentation that you have sent to me in initial draft, I would suggest that the following areas need looking at/reviewing:

• Disclaimers – it is recommended you seek legal advice regarding these and they are reviewed
• The Food Hygiene Rating of businesses donating food is checked at www.food.gov.uk/ratings
• Certified Businesses is changed to Registered Food Businesses
• The Safer Food Better Business pack is completed available to print at www.food.gov.uk
• Allergen information is available for the foods. You would need to comply with the Food Information Regulations 2014.  Further information is available at www.food.gov.uk as well as free online allergen training
• High risk food references are reviewed as there is confusion regarding high risk foods throughout the documentation

The correspondence we have received from the Food Standards Agency with regards to such community fridges suggests that the following points could be emphasised for users in the user guidance as follows:

• Do not donate food that has been stored above 8C for more than four hours
• Cooked rice is added to those foods that should not be donated
• Cooked foods which have been chilled are given a 24 hour maximum ‘use by’ date by the provider from the point when the food was chilled
• Foods which have already been frozen and defrosted once should not be frozen again and then donated
• Ensure donated cooked food is placed in suitable food grade containers”

We are aware of two other community fridges that are already up and running

The Frome community fridge has been going since Spring 2016.  They have an information pack about how they set up the fridge.  Click on the picture below to see their website.

The South Derbyshire community fridge has been going since Autumn 2016.  Click on the picture to see their website.

Other community fridges are being considered for other parts of Oxford and for Swindon.