● Managing the oven ● Taking bookings and/or organizing other volunteers ● Promotion/marketing As part of the Front Street Community Oven model, the facility is only open to the public when there is a volunteer onsite to open and run the oven. For this task, we have recruited volunteers and call them ‘Firemasters’. Firemasters will have been trained in advance about how to operate the oven safely and how to work with the community, following guidelines, managing logistics, etc. If possible, try to find some key volunteers that love their job and will show up on a regular basis. Having lots of volunteers is good, but having some key Firemasters that are experienced will save a lot of work in the managing of bookings and events. What makes a good firemaster ● Dependable; they show up when they are scheduled and communicate if there are any issues. ● Friendly and approachable; firemasters manage the fire and logistics, but a lot of their work is to welcome people in who are curious about the oven. ● Organized; keeping things moving well with a lot of people making food together and sharing the one oven requires a lot of moving parts to work together. ● Clean and tidy; this is for health and safety, but also so that people feel comfortable using the space and trust that it is clean and regularly sanitized. ● Able bodied; most likely, there will be a lot of equipment to move around depending on the event, so it is beneficial to have people that can move around comfortably and with confidence. Health & Safety Regulations Considering this is a community oven, the idea is to be able to have people come and cook and share food together. As simple as this concept seems, there are inevitably going to be some food and safety regulations that you will need to follow, which will be determined by rules and regulations where you are located. These rules will change whether you are on your own land or if you are in a public space. It’s important to do the research about what sort of regulations are in place that might limit what you want to do with your community oven. The Front Street Community Oven is based in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, so we need to follow the rules as dictated by the province. It is also located on private land owned by the Town of Wolfville, so it also needs to consider any bylaws or other rules that the town might have in place. It is highly recommended to reach out to your Food and Safety officer (or similar) early on in the project to get their advice. Pro tip: mention what you want to do, but ask them for the best way to do it as there can often be some power dynamics involved depending on how this is approached; tread lightly and with respect.1 Some of our specific regulations that needed to be considered: ● We are not allowed to serve food to the public. To clarify, a volunteer cannot prepare food and then serve it to people at the oven. The rules state that people can come and prepare their own food, cook it, and eat it themselves or share it with their friends/family. This is one of the most limiting factors when the oven is up and running. One way around this issue is to build walls. If the structure around the oven has walls (along with having stainless steel tables, cleaning equipment, etc.) then there is the option to prepare food and serve it to the public. ● Hand washing stations need to be set up when the oven is in use; this is for both volunteers and the public using the space. ● Volunteers should have their Food Hygiene Handling Cer
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