We are not an organization, and we are not a non-profit. We are neighbors. We don’t have a lot of time, and our budgets are nearly maxed. But we see our neighbors’ daily struggles and feel called to do something in a way that reflects our shared values—compassion, generosity, and trust.
We are not an organization, and we are not a non-profit. We are neighbors. We don’t have a lot of time, and our budgets are nearly maxed. But we see our neighbors’ daily struggles and feel called to do something in a way that reflects our shared values—compassion, generosity, and trust.
Now the mini fridge is fully working the number of families we are helping though the local charity has increased. The charity comes and collects frozen food for them each Thursday, and delivers to their homes. These are families that have young children and lack of transport.
The sensors are working really well, and has reduced the worry we have had over recording of temperatures in all of the fridges and freezers now we have two locations to look after.
Getting the mini fridge up and running has been quite a challenge due to a number of factors all of which are just part of working together as a community. But we now have our sensors, and have been able to extend the food offering from the mini fridge on Thursdays to include frozen foods. These are being targeted through a local charity who work with families needing support to access food. These are families with young children who cannot get to other food provisions in the area, a delivery driver who works with the families on a regular basis has been provided by them. The funding we have received has allowed us to work together to reach more people.
We have also started to have young people coming in to help with the cooking, starting with James who did his scouts cooking badge, we now have serval young people coming to do their Duke of Edinburgh volunteering.
Budget: Seed funding will be spent on thermometer sensors which our local enviromeorestntal health officer requires to have. These are remote sensors that work with an app to monitor fridge and freezer temperatures in real time.
Impact: The is a mini fridge that is part of our larger food project. We are working to provide access to food secuirty across the waterside area of the New Forest. This part of the project will reach around 50 - to 60 people a week,and runs along side our community meals. This is going to allow us to had out frozen foods to families who are unable to get to our larger community fridge in the next village due to lack of public transport. We have a large number of families with children under ten who come along and now we will be able to reach. We are developing links via James who is on our team, with the local youth club to hopefully run some basic cooking lessons.
Location: Blackfield Baptist church have given us a decicated space to turn into a small community fridge space.