"Is your refrigerator running?" Yes... "Well you better go catch it!"

About 13 months ago in the town of Galdako, Spain Alvaro Saiz took an online project to help prevent wasted food in Germany and brought it to his hometown. His idea though had nothing to do with online work and everything to do with in person exchanges. His idea was called "Solidarity Community Refrigerators". In Galdako anyone and everyone could put extra food that was eventually going to go to waste for the hungry. This included super markets and restaurants. No wasted produce from the markets and any extra tapas each evening from the restaurants went to the fridge. There was some speculation among the people in Galdako in regards to hygiene but the town hall eventually approved a 5,000 Euro budget to have the refrigerator put in place. A crew of volunteers were made to help clean it and a set of rules for the donators and takers were added to sway the naysayers.

Once the fridge was put in the city center and ready to go Saizs idea took off and became extremely popular. Over the first seven weeks Saiz estimated the fridge saved about 600 lbs of food (http://mentalfloss.com/article/67680/spains-solidarity-fridge-gives-new-life-leftovers).
Right around this time Murcia, a much larger town in Spain 400 miles away, took action and put one in their town as well.

I heard about this idea from a girl I had met in Bilbao which is a much larger city next to Galdako. She filled me in all about it and I thought it was such a good recycling format for completely edible food. One morning she invited me to join her on her day trip to Galdako from Bilbao to add something to the fridge. Unfortunately I had a few too many cervezas the night before and could barely move from one seat cushion to the other on the love seat in the hostel common area. I had to toss that idea out the window as the only thing that would end up in the fridge from me that day would be my vomit. Grossly enough I know that's not allowed so I stayed there. It did put my mind at ease knowing there was one in Murcia where I was eventually going so I could check that one out or so I thought. 

This brings me to my time in Murcia where I just left yesterday and went on a wild goose chase trying to find that refrigerator. For a good portion of two days I went from searching the internet to asking tour guides, my hostel host and the tourist information center to find it but I had no such luck. One of the very helpful ladies at the city center tourism office of Murcia sent me to what she thought was the solidarity community refrigerator but it ended up being a food bank to feed the hungry. Before I could even ask where the fridge was a representative of the food bank offered me a free meal through broken English that I could barely understand. That offer there made me feel so at home in that building because I definitely felt like a fish out of water being the ONLY backpacker/tourist. After I politely declined the meal I tried to tell her in my broken Spanish that I wanted to donate food not eat it. It took a gentleman close by to bridge the communication barrier between the volunteer of the food bank and myself. With his and her help I thought I was on to something. 

They hopped on the computer behind the desk and started a search. A few minutes passed and they came back with a printed map and a pin dropped on the cross streets of where the fridge was suppose to be. I couldn't thank them enough. I'm sure the volunteer had other things going on at the time but stopped to see if she could be of service and the gentleman who helped was just there for a meal not expecting to be a translator. 

After what seemed like forever searching for that pin on the map I was in a suburb where I found the location. This location turned out to be a Social Services Organization that was closed for the day. I had come to a dead end in my search.  While I loved hearing about this fantastic way to prevent wasted food from my friend in Bilbao and would have loved to see it "in action" the people and conversations I had along the way in Murcia were something very special to me. I still don't know if there is one in Murcia or not but I do hope cities in the country continue to replicate the idea because things like this in the United States would never pass in a town hall. 

Here are a few pictures of Murcia below

Cathedral Church of Saint Mary

Inside the clock tower as seen above to the left hand side 

The key to get inside the room at the top of the tower 

This meal was way too fancy for me but hey, you gotta treat yourself sometimes. I honestly can't remember the fried thing but on the spoon is Salmorejo and a raw quail egg. Salmorejo is a traditional cold soup made from garlic and tomatoes. 

Just being a goofball