Multi-Purpose Community Cold Storage for Farmers & Healthcare
THE PROBLEM
Smallholder farmers in rural Zambia lack access to cold storage, leading to significant post-harvest losses. At the same time, community health facilities face challenges maintaining cold chain supplies – including ice packs used in vaccine transportation. Both problems share a single underlying gap: reliable, affordable cold storage near the community.
THE SOLUTION
A multi-purpose community cold hub sited near existing mini-grids – which are already strategically located within communities. The hub serves smallholder farmers (primary users) for post-harvest produce storage, local butchers for meat preservation, and the healthcare sector for storing cold packs used in vaccine transportation and insulin.
APPROACH
Community infrastructure · Multi-use cold storage · Mini-grid co-location ·
FIELD RESEARCH
Eastern Province, Zambia
TEAM MEMBERS
The Coldhub Community team members, left to right:
- Justina Jere · University of Zambia (UNZA), Mechanical Engineering
- Sante Shalubala · University of Zambia (UNZA), Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Penda Mulenga · University of Zambia (UNZA), Information and Communication Technologies
- Natasia Fisher · Simon Fraser University, Sustainable Energy Engineering
- Nalyssa Runge · Simon Fraser University, Sustainable Energy Engineering
- Esther Li · Simon Fraser University, Sustainable Energy Engineering
