Meeting April 24 2024

Community Fridge Minutes
Apr 24, 2024, 4-5:45, Naked Cafe

Present: Dale, Allisa, Carol, Terry, Joanne, Ollie
Notes by Terry, with a few edits from Ollie

• Land acknowledgement and welcome by Dale
• Dale reminded us about Ollie’s why are we a mutual aid group?
• Previous meetings in reorganization: two in-person meetings, two online meetings
• Possible locations:
  • Baptist church on Bernard and Richmond. Minister expressed interest in hosting Dec 2022. We could see if Erika will reach out to them. Perhaps a letter first, with follow-up phone call. We can look at their FB page. They have a great kitchen and a big parking lot.
  • Queensway? Perhaps not a good fit, e.g. parking.
  • Central United? They would like a proposal from us (Outreach Minister Keith). Proposal: info on mutual aid, our organization, our plans for the fridge.
  • We could explore the neighborhood and try and find other places; Carol suggests north of Clement.
• Allisa: first we need to sort out roles, who will do what, etc. Revisit Ollie’s planning document. Keeley: volunteer for social media team. We need to make sure teams are robust to prevent people burning out.
• Teams/Commitees: [essential to set up indicated with **]
  • Internal communication: organizing, facilitating, and recording meetings, volunteer welcome/onboarding** Terry
  • External Communication: social media, website, advertising, media outreach**: Erica, Keeley
  • Cleaning
  • Donations (food, money)
  • Finances** ($1400 $1500 at present). Joanne, others?
  • Event organization/social committee/community outreach (e.g. pop-ups, fridge birthday parties, cultural)**
• We should try and find a time for regular meetings
• Ollie: start with pop-up pantries? Good way to transition to fridge. Could be allied with Palestine protests, at Sails if their organizers like that idea, or held in a park as our own event. Allisa suggested could have PUPs at locations who might host a fridge, as an audition. Ollie to approach organizers for potential PUP May 11 as part of Palestine event.
• if event May 11: we would need somebody to buy stuff; signage about fridge; how can we recruit/educate people at the event? E.g. link to volunteer form on website, QR code and plaintext. Information about mutual aid, goals of the fridge: handouts
• Connecting with other community groups: Okanagan College community fridge group, SolSun
• Future meetings: May 8 group meeting. Have an earlier meeting just to plan May 11 pop-up. Terry will do Doodle poll for May 8 or 9.