Volunteer
With Us!
Make a meal—
make some friends
Join us for our weekly Cook Day at our home base, Northside Community Kitchen, to cook meals that go directly to the fridges.
Our sign-ups are posted weekly and they will include the menu for the cook day that week. Feel free to bring other ingredients to add or other donations for the fridges. We will prep, cook, container, and distribute the food together!
Please contact us if you have any questions about our cook day, or about hosting your own.
Donating Food
Thank you!!
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Please wear gloves while preparing meals to distribute.
All donations must be labelled with:Ingredients
Date it was packaged, and expiration date (3-4 days after preparation)
Allergens may include:
DAIRY/MILK, EGGS, FISH, CRUSTACEAN SHELLFISH, TREE NUTS, PEANUTS, WHEAT/GLUTEN, SOY, SESAME -
YES examples: fresh produce, sealed pantry foods, appropriate refrigerated foods, properly labeled prepared foods.
NO examples: raw meat/fish, alcohol, moldy food, expired food, opened food, unlabeled prepared food.
Food Safety Guidelines
Click the button below for
printable food labels.
The Discord
Volunteering for RVA Community Fridges can look like many different things.
We have opportunities cleaning, restocking, cooking, distribution, outreach, events, and administrative or digital support.
The best way to get involved, our Discord, has many channels in which you can jump in. We have a channel for each fridge, so you can keep up with the one closest to you. We also have many different channels from building and installing, to grants and fundraising. There’s room for everyone!!
Hosting a
Community
Fridge
We determine fridge locations with a few different metrics, including neighborhood need, proximity to grocery stores/businesses, accessibility, visibility, traffic, electricity, weather protection, and host availability. We then refine those into locations to be voted on by the community.
Being a fridge host entails:
providing a safe and accessible 24/7 area for community members to drop off and receive food.
providing the electric to power the fridge.
maintaining a clean area and helping fill the fridge when possible.
networking with other community members to encourage use of the fridge within your neighborhood.
If you’re looking to host a fridge within our network, please fill out the form below.
Keeping the
Fridges Clean
Fridge Cleaning Duties
Make sure the Food Safety Guidelines sign is posted and visible on the fridge.
Check to ensure food in the fridge is within regulations, is properly labeled, dated, etc (see the Food Safety Guidelines above)
Throw out any spoiled, damaged, or expired food.
Wipe down any dirty surfaces, both inside or outside of the fridge
Reorganize food in the fridge for best use of space and least amount of damage possible. If you need to remove one of the plastic organizer bins to make space, please place on top of the fridge or in one of the pantry bins if there's room.
Pick up any trash in the area around the fridge and pantry.
All done? Snap a picture and post in the specific location [chat], so folks can see if we need refills/repairs/fixes or just that someone has already been by!
Here’s some tips and tricks to help keep our community fridges nice and clean!
Here are some tips for cleaning or stocking:
Pull the crisper bins and any detachable door shelves out of the fridge, to clean/fill them outside if the fridge, so that you can leave the door closed
Use a squeeze bottle of soapy water to quickly blast corners or sticky surfaces clean, then follow up with a rag, and Lysol wipe/spray. I keep my cleaning kit in my car so the soapy water is already warm.
Try to minimize opening the door multiple times by having everything next to it (especially when stocking)
Once finished, moving a freezer pack or two from the freezer to the fridge to help cool it down quicker
Make a donation
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Make an impact
・
Create change
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Check out our
Open Collective
