Talk:Tag:amenity=food sharing

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Is there a best practice for adding the "type" of structure of a food sharing location. For example, there is a wiki for public bookcase types https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:public_bookcase:type Thanks! Osmedit (talk) 03:53, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

I listed out its problem now Talk:Key:public_bookcase:type#The_usual_mess
There's already 2 food_sharing=* for the food accepted. Using food_sharing:type=* doesn't distinguish between them. As mentioned there now, public_bookcase:type=* mixes structure and position.
What do you need? The problem I see in Proposal:Food sharing is amenity=food_sharing includes fridge=* . This means food_sharing:*=shelf is unsuitable anyway (also see my comment about public_bookcase:type=shelf vs amenity=shelf ), as it doesn't describe the refrigerator. There are more complicated cases File:Madame_Frigo_an_der_Speichergasse_11_im_Januar_2020.jpg with the fridge being inside a cabinet.
In fact, 4 shelf=* has already been used on amenity=food_sharing . This shows its potential.

• Madame Frigo: 6209760139 6209760139 , 7099743594 7099743594 , 8201177568 8201177568
• 7859530255 7859530255 ( fridge=icebox poses an interesting question)

—— Kovposch (talk) 10:21, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Reduce food waste or food insecurity

As the author of the proposal for this tag, I have had the same discussion several times, so I am leaving a comment for clarity:

Give boxes and food sharing are things that exist here in Europe, they have a clear focus and character: They can be used by anyone to give and take, and essentially it’s about reusing things to avoid waste in the sense of a circular economy. Food waste is a big problem here in Switzerland.

The public refrigerators serve as distribution points, and everyone is encouraged to use them to prevent food waste. Distribution must be quick because the food is perishable.

I think in the US and at other places in the world there are little free pantries or blessing boxes that are aimed at people in need for food security and are less focused on reducing food waste. I imagine that people even buy extra food and put it in these facilities to help people in need, which contradicts the original idea of food sharing. In my opinion, facilities such as little free pantries or blessing boxes need a new tag, e.g. social_facility=community_pantry

However, I see that there are already mappers who use this tag (amienity=food_sharing). I suspect this is because there is no better alternative tag documented. I don't want to create this tag (eg. social_facility=community_pantry) because I don't know enough about them.

Even if the difference seems small, it is very important in practice (for people who visit these places). We also do not map social_facility=soup_kitchen as amenity=restaurant. (Perhaps we should do that, but we are not doing it at the moment.)

ToastHawaii (talk) 12:58, 21 October 2025 (UTC)