Freezer cooperation Zijderveld

One of the last freezer cooperations in The Netherlands hangs its boots

A building centrally located in the village, with a large shared freezer inside might not seem all too relevant today, as most people have one of their own. I don’t expect many freezer cooperations to see the light in the future, but I do like them, illustrating the possibilities of the cooperative model beyond living, farming, free spaces and energy generation. The freezer cooperation shows that we can share certain provisions that are usually individually claimed.
I hope the story of the Zijderveld cooperation will give people ideas and get them to initiate new cooperative actions. If you can share a freezer with the neighbourhood, then why wouldn’t transport vehicles, winter sport items or washing machines be next? The possibilities are endless and everybody knows that we all possess things which are barely used and could therefore be shared rather easily.

The origins of the freezer cooperation
In the 60’s and 70’s of the past century, when many people didn’t have a freezer at home, many freezer cooperations where founded, mainly in farming communities out in the country. These cooperations grew out of initiatives of cooling-technique companies visiting villages to see whether they could deliver the equipment for a shared freezer. Business for them and a solution for the village residents, since it allowed them to store meat after slaughter as well as vegetables from their garden.  
In 1963 the notarial act was signed for shared freezers in Zijderveld, Nieuwland and Schoonrewoerd. A shared act for three freezers in three nearby villages, because that saved all of them money.
At the start of 2022, freezer cooperation Zijderveld received a letter from the energy supplier which read that the monthly costs would raise in May that year, from €350 to €600, and to €1350 in September. An increase of €1000 within half a year!
Immediately, the management pounded the alarm and gathered the members of the cooperation. In order to continue, their contribution was to raise significantly and it soon turned out that more than a half of them didn’t see that happen. Since members leaving would mean higher costs for those remaining, it was decided unanimously to end the cooperation as for January the first, 2023.   

The cooperation didn’t have an eye for profit, if only for the tax remittance, and thus kept the prices as low as possible.

The freezer
Just for the record, the freezer cooperation in Zijderveld was a small house with a weighty door and a porch to keep the cold inside. All members of the cooperation owned a key which provided them 24/7 access to the freezer. Inside the building there were a little over a hundred vaults, each with its own key and thus only accessible for the respective renter. There were vaults of 100 litres, 200 litres and the larger ones varied between 250 and 285 litres. When we spoke with Dick, during the final days of the cooperation, there were still some 80 vaults rented. Throughout the years, the rental numbers have been rather stable. Sometimes a bit over, but never really under that 80. Naturally, every once in a while people left as they bought a freezer of their own, but as other freezer cooperations in surrounding villages came to quit, people from within the region came to join regularly, keeping the number of rented vaults more or less the same. The problem with such a large freezer is that the energy costs remain the same, regardless the amount of rented vaults. So, similar energy costs at the rent of 80 and 100 vaults and growing costs per vault when the member base shrinks.
Besides the energy costs there were few other costs. A small amount for administration, taxes and insurances, but that’s about it. The cooperation didn’t have an eye for profit, if only for the tax remittance, and thus kept the prices as low as possible.
A few years before the increase in energy prices, an option had been investigated to generate the necessary energy on own terms, by means of solar panels. Alas, that was close to impossible, since the roof of the freezer stood in a unfavourable position towards the sun and a higher, adjacent house took away much sunlight.  

A loss for the village and the region
Dick den Hartog was born and raised in Zijderveld and chairman of the cooperative freezer since 1997. The first and previous chairman made it to 35 years, Dick was to start his 25nd year. The closing down of the cooperation concerns him seriously. The board, the manager and Dick himself did everything within their powers to keep their heads above the water, but had to resign to the conclusion that the financial loads would weigh to heavy. A shared freezer seems rather unimportant, but for the freezer cooperation Zijderveld it has been a difficult decision to quit the project. Zijderveld is small, and there hasn’t been any shop, restaurant or café in town for years. The only thing left was the shared freezer. A practical facility and a project that provided social contacts, meetings and shared responsibilities. Not only within the village, but beyond there as well. It has to be said that people from outside of town made use of the freezer during the last years. They would not, as would Dick, suffice with a little walk to grab a back of fried fries or a pizza. For the farmers and gardeners in the region the big freezer was still of great value.

Manager
Freezer cooperation Zijderveld was not a rich club. The estimate and the rents were tuned to the annual costs and a piece of reservation for maintenance. That way, there was always an amount of around €5000 on account as provision for when something went wrong with the motor of the freezer, or something other.  
When such a calamity occurred, action had to be taken à la minute, otherwise everything inside the freezer would defrost. Besides the five people of the management and a finance committee, there was a administrator. An important function, since he had to go and check upon the freezer every day. Not a complex job, though a crucial one, as three days without power or a broken ventilator could have big consequences.

It was, among other things, established in the statutes that the output of an withdrawal would not be shared between the cooperation members, but would come to benefit association life in Zijderveld.  

Cooperation
Freezer cooperation Zijderveld was officially registered as a cooperation, thus not as an association, as are many housing cooperations, for example. This legal form was chosen at the founding and formally recorded together with the Nieuwland and Schoonrewoerd freezer cooperations. Sometime around 2000, that shared notarial act was declared invalid and the Rabobank demanded the three cooperations to register themselves individually at the Kamer van Koophandel. At that moment, Dick and the other members wanted to convert the cooperation into an association, because the cooperation falls under the small business category and thus has to deal with the Belastingdienst (tax authority), while associations and foundations don’t, as they are non-profit by definition.
This conversion, however, wasn’t as simple a process as hoped for and would have the cooperation pay a €10.000 to the Belastingdienst. An amount that the cooperation neither had nor wanted to spend on just a transposition of such kind. Therefore, Zijderveld remained a cooperation, but under new conditions. It was, among other things, established in the statutes that the output of an withdrawal would not be shared between the cooperation members, but would come to benefit association life in Zijderveld.  

Attention
During the existence of the freezer cooperation there hasn’t been done much in terms of promotion, as many of the vaults were usually rented. A few times people have been standing on the annual fair in town with ice creams, while every five years, during the illumination week, a large snowman was put up next to the freezer. Very occasionally has there been a short article in a regional newspaper. Apart from that, publicity around the freezer cooperation was scarce until the announcement of the closing down.
From the moment Dick posted a short message on Facebook notifying the end of the freezer, the wind turned unexpectedly, causing journalists to line up for an interview. That same day, he was called up by RTV Utrecht and the interview was broadcasted on radio and television. The next day, Radio 1, NOS journal jeugdjournaal, RTL Nieuws and Hart van Nederland had the phone ringing for a chat with the chairman .
Of course, Dick was surprised, but filled with pride too. Suddenly, the small town of Zijderveld found itself in the spotlights. He realized -more than he had done before- that the freezer cooperation was a unique facility.  
Zijderveld was one of the last shared freezers in the Netherlands. The cooperation of Schoonrewoerd had (at the time of our visit, end 2022) long ceased to exist, and Nieuwland pulled the plug a month later. According to Dick, that left the country with only two freezer cooperations, one in Schelluinen and Goudriaan.