Since 2017, the Frigos Solidaires association has been offering the installation of fridges in front of shops or associations to fight, among other things, against food waste. Whether you drop off food or pick it up, these fridges are free to use.

Make a wind blow solidarity with some frigos . This is the whole objective of the association. Solidarity Fridges . Dounia Mebtoul is the founder. In 2017, then at the head of The canteen of 18, a family and associative Parisian restaurant, she sets up, with her mother, a system unpublished in France, yet existing abroad. 'The idea came to me because in 2011 when I was living in London, I discovered a community fridge ' , explains Dounia Mebtoul.

Free and easy access

Throughout the territory, a hundred fridges have been installed. 'They are in outside , facing the front of a commerce , of a institution or a restaurant .' The principle is simple: 'These fridges allow everyone to to file all the foodstuffs that they have not consumed for the inhabitants, all the unsold for the traders and the surplus of donations for the associations. This will allow more destitute to feed easily and free .' These fridges are accessible during shop opening hours, they are retracted during closing. In effect, 'someone has to take care of it cleanser , maintaining it, taking the temperatures, etc. , explains Dounia Mebtoul. 'If you give individuals are interested in installing a fridge, they can put in contact with a trader close to home, this is what is done most often, most of the time it is a citizens' initiative.'

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A map indicating the premises fridges is available online, 'it will quickly be updated because we have facilities additional including an inauguration scheduled for Saturday, September 24 in Évian-les-Bains for example.'

A solidarity initiative

Those who use this device have some profiles radically different, 'we have some retirees , of the families many or single parents, students or even people who chain several trades. between the crisis of Covid and the consequences of inflation on the cost of food, there are many people destitute who will prefer to pay their rent what to pay what to feed .' More than 1900 people use these fridges every day, 'everything goes extremely quickly, nothing remains. As soon as a deposit is practiced, within a minute there is a withdrawal .' But not really enough to delight the restaurateur at the head of the association: 'It's a success because it works and it really helps but that's enough sad to have to use this type of device. [...] Today, there is a real problem when you see the millions of tons of food wasted and the millions of people who live below the poverty line.'

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To take advantage of it, there is really no more favorable time slot, 'these fridges are filling up enough random , donations are deposited All day long because it can come as much from a resident who moves as from an association which makes a donation at the end of the day or from a trade which gives its unsold items at the end of the day. After, is the trader to check the foodstuffs deposited. “For example, it is not recommended to put in fresh meat and fish because it risks breaking the cold chain. Now, if it is meat cooked by a restaurateur, for example, it works.” For the tradespeople , 'there is nothing to pay. The fridges are either financed by patronage , by crowdfunding or by the municipality via the participatory budget . The whole installation costs €1,500 , delivery and furniture included' , explains Dounia Mebtoul.

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Source journaldesfemmes.fr