free.go was a food sharing mechanism in Davis, promoting public sharing refrigerators. Their slogan was "Take what you want, leave what you don't".
The first fridge was first installed at 812 Douglass Avenue in October 2014. In December 2014 a space dedicated to book-sharing was also created.
free.go ended up being shut down by Yolo County due to code violations. Attempts to revive the community fridge concept in Davis have continued, with Freedge being the latest attempt.
Most of the food shared in the fridge was non-perishable, like canned vegetables, canned juice, candies, packed cereals, uncooked pasta, tea bags, coffee, etc. There was also some perishable items being shared, but they normally didn't last long. Products with higher contamination risks such as fresh meat were rare. Inhabitants of the house where the fridge was installed performed regular safety checks on the fridge, at least twice a day. They looked for expired items and items that looked "suspicious". The fridge was cleaned at least once a week. The risk of food contamination was attempted to be kept as low as possible, but of course not zero.
free.go had been described as "Illegal food distribution" by the Yolo County Health Inspectors who had it condemned because of the "Risk of food contamination given lack of surveillance". They stated that free.go had no "permit to operate" and that "No permit can issued". According to them, free.go violated the "California Food Retail Code" (even if it didn't sell any food).
So what would it have taken to get a permit to operate? The main obstacle was the fact that permit applications are designed for the "Retail" sector and therefore not adapted to a sharing mechanism not involving money exchange. The "business owner" needs to fill a permit application (http://www.yolocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=326) and pay a fee (http://www.yolocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=26872) to get the "facility" inspected. A fee-exemption form is available for non-profit organizations (http://www.yolocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=21188).
Discussion:
Up to date there is no evidence that the risk of contamination of a shared fridge is higher than when eating a fruit from a tree in the street or any other public place (see Fruit Trees). Because we always need to think about the worst, one might wonder "what if someone put some poison in there?". Well this could be considered a crime or a terrorist act. Up to date there is no evidence that a crime or terrorist act is more likely to happen in a shared fridge than elsewhere in Davis (see Crime). Unfortunately there is no way to make sure that this food is 100% safe, like there is no way to make sure that crossing a street is 100% safe (The problem of being alive is that you can die at any moment)
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I'm all for reducing food waste here, but given that the Health Department has ruled it illegal (regardless of thier intent), how safe is this food?
- They also affirmed that food waste generates more profits and jobs in the food distribution industry, and therefore should not be prevented (citation needed).
