At the end of April Frome Town Council worked with local social enterprise Edventure to set up the UK’s first community fridge. Three months on the fridge has enabled over 1000 items of ‘surplus’ food to be shared by businesses and the local community. The project is now attracting national media attention and several groups around the country are using Frome’s open source toolkit to set up their own fridge. Recent coverage includes an article in the Guardian (31st July 2016) and Jamie Oliver’s production team who are coming to do a feature at the fridge on the 11th August as part of their ‘Friday Night Feast’ series on Channel 4.
As well as enabling local businesses and residents to reduce food waste, the fridge provides a ‘life-line’ for some who are struggling and the project is working in partnership with local charity Fair Frome who run the local food bank. The fridge is open every day from 8am and 8pm for anyone to use.
Anna Francis, Frome Town Council’s Resilience Officer who helped to set up the project said “The response to the fridge has been amazing. The fridge has proved to be almost too popular and despite being restocked daily is often empty. We now need more of the larger food retailers to participate and we have a team of amazing volunteers who can pick up surplus from local businesses. It’s a win-win situation – less food is wasted, less energy is used, more people can access fresh produce and it’s good for all concerned.”For more information about the fridge or to access the free toolkit visit: www.edventurefrome.org/fridge or https://www.facebook.com/communityfridgefrome/
For more information about this, please contact Anna Francis francisa@frometowncouncil.gov.uk
Photo of Ali Barclay (then Deputy Mayor of Frome) and Esther Deeks, Project Coordinator. Photo taken by David Chedgy.
Since bring featured in The Guardian the community fridge has now been featured in some other online publications:
http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/30/greggs-and-ms-to-donate-leftover-food-to-solidarity-fridges-6039189/
And Breeze Radio
