#foodrescue

Ok! I'm going to touch grass. Today is my food rescue day. I'm going to do some work. Then head out, grab, and deliver the food and continue on. I'll post pics when I do. #solarPunk #foodRescue

Just had my monthly in person meeting with the food group.

I'm just happy.

We had a new person join us. They're new in town and want to grow roots. We're plugging them in.

Lots of things going on:

• Quarterly group potluck is this Saturday (as one of our members pointed out, this is a community group and we need to meet and hang out!!! She is now coordinating the potlucks moving forward and has ordered us to bring food. So we will.)
• Fridges are stressed under summer heat but have been holding up which is amazing
• We're using simple thermometers and checking daily right now but are researching wifi thermometers to send us autoupdates
• One fridge needs more cleaning supplies
• Second fridge needs a latch installed to start keeping supplies there. Lock has already been procured.
• We're in final stages of getting 501c3 status under another group in town who offered it to us!!!
• That will let us reapproach some stores for food rescue who needed us to have 501c3 status
• Foodrescue from the latest gluten free bakery is going strong
• LOOOOTS of indoor food growing classes are set up. Our master gardener has just run with that initiative, so we are giving monthly classes at local libraries on how to grow your own food indoors (the librarians love us apparently)

And! This is tangential, but the library is looking to expand its seed library! The main one at the head branch has been doing so well, they're looking to add seed libraries at other branches!!!!

How amazing is that?!?!

#solarPunk #freeFridge #foodRescue #mutualAid #indoorFarming #hydroponics

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

Update on my Food Rescue Initiative for my local town!!! Two Things. One, I've been getting hooked up with the local mutual aid crowd in my town and met some wonderful people recently!!! One of them is an organizer and is very very interested in creating more Free Fridges throughout town annnnnnd is very interested in setting up a Food Rescue program! So her and I have been teaming up to get it done. Two, we just had a meeting with a national (United States) group that has their own web app for coordinating between food contributors (the places that create the food and would otherwise throw out the good food that wasn't sold), food distributors, and the gleaners / volunteers who connect the two... basically logistics. It was a good meeting and we may start to work under their aegis. We're doing a technical demo of the web app this week hopefully. If we decide to go with them, I'll put the update here. I'm excited!!! #solarPunk #foodRescue #foodSecurity

Ok! Had a technical demo of the web app for food rescue. I think we're going to go with them. Solid desktop app that scales well for mobile. Its a lightweight org with a small budget but they're doing a lot with it. Feature rich currently and does everything i need it to do so far as coordinating between the food rescue sites, the food distribution sites, and the gleaners connecting the two. Once we get it up and running officially, i'll post it here. #foodRescue #foodSecurity #mutualAid #solarPunk #postScarcity

While waiting for the paperwork to go through for that national food rescue org, I'm still going to do food rescue manually. Another donut haul! I dont know how many donuts. Lost count. Anyhow. had to find space in the free fridge for it. Folks had added even more fresh veggies and bread and salads, so I had to get creative making room for my deserts. 😅 Edit: Ignore the lighting in the fridge. It was night time and I used a flash. Makes things weird colors. Anyhoo. #freeFridge #foodRescue #mutualAid #solarPunk #postScarcity #foodSecurity

Great News!!! We got approved to work with https://foodrescue.us !!! This gives us access to their coordination software and web app for free! We can use the app to sign up food contributors & food distributors. Then volunteers can sign up to pick up from one and drop off to the other (basically logistics). We can also operate under their aegis which gives us local credibility and also allows us to use their 501c3 non-profit status. So anyone donating to us can use it as a tax writeoff. They also provide our donors/contributors with quarterly and yearly statements for tax purposes. There's some other offerings, but thats the chunk! A food rescue group from DC has already reached out to us to offer support and guidance! It'll take around a week to get onboarded and then we'll start using it to scale out. #foodRescue #foodSecurity #mutualAid #solarPunk

Ok, been a bit since I gave a Food Rescue Program update. We're still in onboarding for Food Rescue US. I pushed back on some of the contract language and we're sorting it out. Nothing major and they're awesome, it just takes some time. In the mean time, I've spun up a web site, a discord chat, and a monthly meeting at the library! We held our first in person meeting and it was a major success! We're pushing Food Rescue initiatives as well as expanding our Free Fridge program! Folks had amazing ideas and have already started running down those leads. I told them I'm not the leader. I'll facilitate and help guide and help remove obstacles and provide ideas but I can't do it all and they shouldn't wait on me to approve anything. Ideas are put up to the group to discuss and shy of any major ethical concerns, usually folks gather up others and go and get it done. This is going really well. #solarPunk #foodRescue #mutualAid

Really cool update! So we had our first win on finding a place that was interested in food rescue... the donut place (see above thread), right? Right now, I've just been taking them to the Free Fridge each night. Two things, one someone else has stepped up and is interested in helping glean - grabbing the food at the bakery and then dropping it off at the distribution point. That's awesome. Next... and this is amazing... I reached out to a local church that serves breakfast once a week. Asked them if they were interested in getting free fresh donuts for that. They said they were! So once a week, the night before breakfast, IF... we have donuts available, we drop them off at that church instead of the fridge. Oh... and they're interested in putting a fridge outside of their church as well! Still gotta talk to their leadership and see what all we have to do, but it's a solid lead!!! Just a little at time... and it keeps growing. #foodRescue #freeFridge #solarPunk #mutualAid

Massive Update on the Food Rescue front!!! We worked out the contract issues with Food Rescue US (FRUS - https://foodrescue.us)and we just signed the contract! We can now begin the rescue efforts in earnest!!! This is MASSIVE!!! This initiative started last November,, and while it's had a couple of obstacles, five months from conception to group formation to joining with a national org isn't that long. We're also going to be joining Food Rescue Alliance (FRA - https://www.boulderfoodrescue.org/food-rescue-alliance/) They're a US based national "mutual aid of mutual aids" sort of thing. So we can join other food rescue groups and learn from each other. I'd like to see if there's a state group to join as well. If not, I'd like to start one up. A lot of laws and regulations are state based and learning from other groups in our state would be amazing. Soooo!!!! Expect some more updates in the coming weeks. I'm so excited!!!! #solarPunk #mutualAid #foodRescue #postScarcity #foodSecurity

Today's food rescue: a bunch of submarine sandwiches from a local cafe! Stuck em in the free fridge. #solarPunk #mutualAid #foodRescue #foodSecurity #postScarcity #freeFridge

Food Rescue Program Update HOLY FUCKING SHIT I AM FUCKING SCARED OF TOMORROW!!!! (hint: it's good news) Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! Blarrrrgh!!!!!!!! Fuck. Okay, it's good news, really, but shit am I a catatonic mess of nausea and nerves and I don't fucking know what to do. Tomorrow is our weekly Farmer's Market. This is really important in our town and it's one key to building greater community. This isn't an idyllic saccharine frolic as the Farmer's Market trope is often presented. So. Two folks who have joined my Fridge and Food Rescue group have INITIATED, ORGANIZED, AND LEAD!!!! setting up at our Farmer's Market. Two or three other folks will be joining these two leaders. I didn't do this. I started the main group, sure, but they're going off on their own without me. That's a good thing. Amazing thing actually. I should never be a bottleneck or the main person. This has to be everyone. But they've asked me to come and see if any of the other farmers and vendors at the market want to enroll in our food rescue program while they handle other things. Fuck fuck fuck. Y'all. I'm good at talking to a group of people that want to work together. I'm good at solving programs. I'm damned good at setting up groups, and infrastructure, and programs. But I am DEATHLY AFRAID of talking to people that could possibly say no. Hahahaha. I didn't use to be like this, but I experienced a really fucking traumatic event about three years ago that involved me begging and pleading and making and giving arguments that absolutely were logical and reasoned and supported with a massive amount of evidence. I spent tens of thousands of dollars that I didn't (and still dont) have. I went into crazy debt that I might still not get out from.... all to be brushed aside and denied at every front. I say that... because its made it to where I can't approach anyone now if there will be any push back. I can fight people, right. I can stand up to someone doing bad in the moment. But I can't try to REASON with them. And that's bleeding into other aspects of my life. I can't go to city council meetings to plead for them not to set up an AI data center in my town, for example. And, interestingly, it makes it incredibly difficult to "cold call" or approach folks to sign them up for food rescue. Fuck me.... I'm going to try this tomorrow. And I have my friends and comrades there who WILL help me. But, ya'll... I'm fucking scared. Hahaha. Shit. #foodRescue #mutualAid #solarPunk

Momentous Update on the Food Rescue Program!!! We got our first food rescue!!!! Like official. In the app! Not an adhoc one. And it wasnt me who set this up! Another organizer got our first grocer. I put the route into the app and opened it up for volunteers. And a community member picked it up!!!!! We are rescuing food from a grocer and delivering to a free fridge! Calling it: November 14th of last year (2024) - to now (June 10th 2025). 7 months from idea conception to a formal route / food rescue between a food seller and a food distributor. (With founding a mutual aid group, to growing it, to partnering with a national food rescue org - yay Food Rescue US! - to meeting with a grocer and connecting them to a free fridge all in between) Now it's time to scale.... #solarPunk #mutualAid #foodSecurity #postScarcity #foodRescue #foodRescueUS #freeFridge

Results of that food rescue route I mentioned! A lot of produce. Neighbors came and grabbed a lot of the veggies when it came in. I put the rest into the fridge for others to grab later. This was one vendor on one night. We throw away so much good food. I'm going to go find more food. #solarPunk #mutualAid #foodRescue #foodWaste #freeFridge #postScarcity

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

Updates on my town's Food Rescue initiatives.... Some bad.... and some good.

Bad News is we are no longer working with Food Rescue US. To be very clear, they are a wonderful organization and if you have an opportunity to work with them, by all means do so!

My groups model and their model just don't really align is all. Long and short, they were wanting us to get more food rescue routes quicker than we were able to and when we really couldnt meet their metrics, we both agreed that we should go our separate ways.

Quick Lessons learned here:

• Their model works really well when you have a dedicated and paid staff. It wasn't working well for a community group comprised of volunteers working in their (often minimal) spare time.
• If you do have a dedicated or even paid group, they are AWESOME!!! Great staff. Loads of in house support. Great app.
• If you don't have a dedicated staff and are a smaller community group, it might not be the best fit.

Both parties knew this going into it and we had decided to give it a shot anyhow. It didn't work out. Alas.

Ok. So..... next part is the good news.

With that!!! We have now joined the Food Rescue Alliance (FRA)! They are a mutual-aid group of mutual-aid groups spearheaded by the Boulder (Colorado USA) Food Rescue group.

More info here: https://www.boulderfoodrescue.org/food-rescue-alliance/

They are much more aligned with how we work.

Now, instead of taking orders and meeting metrics from a non-profit corporate model, we operate independently and both rely on and contribute to the greater FRA group members.

This is awesome.

We have access to peer support, best practice information, troubleshooting and guidance, as well as their own food rescue app - Rootable.

Rootable is a Free and Open Source (FOSS) application.

Here is the app website: https://rootable.org

Here is the codebase: https://codeberg.org/rootable/

We're getting set up on it right now. We've been warmly welcomed and have already attended some meetings.

I think this will work out great.

#solarPunk #foodRescue #foodRescueAlliance #rootableApp

Really great news!!! A local bakery that specializes in gluten free bread, pastries, and cakes reached out to us... ...we didn't reach out to them. They contacted us!... ...about doing food rescue with them! Not only are they looking at food rescue in general, but they're specifically looking at serving those that are hungry AND have food allergies and intolerances! Everyone deserves healthy, tasty, good, and safe food (and also desserts!!!) - even those that have food constraints. So we worked it out. Every day they take whatever they didn't sell and freeze it. We come by once a week and pick it up and run it to one of the fridges! Look at this first haul!!! #foodRescue #foodSecurity #solarPunk #freeFridge #goodNews