Waste Management: The Community Fridge initiative
While watching Friday night TV last week, I was surprised to come across an ingenious answer to food waste that I hadn’t seen before.
Each year the average UK family waste £470 on produce that could have been eaten, but ends up thrown away (per Hubbub). On top of that, around £3 billion is wasted by the food sectors, even with the push towards a greater awareness of this issue it still isn’t easy for people or businesses to make use of food that is approaching its ‘sell by’ date.
Yet on Jamie & Jimmy's Friday Night Feast there was a segment dedicated to the setup of a Community Fridge in Frome, Somerset. The basic idea being a communal space whereby local residents and businesses can drop off unwanted food to later be collected by anyone who fancies it.
Such a simple, effective solution to a major problem in modern society. So I decided to investigate further.
I got in touch with Helen Johnstone, who manages the Community Fridge: Frome, to ask about how the project operates, where the funding came from and the sort of man power that is needed to support such an operation.
The fridge set up in Frome was one of the first of its kind in the UK, a pilot project for future programs and, so far, has been hugely successful.
“The remarkable thing about the Fridge is that EVERYTHING GOES! No matter how many packs of leeks or spring onions go into the Fridge one day, it will all be gone by the next day. We reckon only about 30 items a month (out of 4,000 approximately) will have to be discarded.
“Our Fridge is located in a small, repurposed block that was once a public toilet (please don't think it is grim - it is a really colourful little cabin!) in the centre of town. There is now a tiny Indian cafe that operates out of part of the cabin three days a week, with tables out in the open.
“The costs are obviously kept as low as possible, but funding is currently from Hubbub and two local Fridge sponsors - Ethical Revolution and the Blackford Centre.”
Hubbub are an environmental charity that create campaigns to inspire people to make healthier, greener lifestyle choices. They collaborate with other organisations on a multitude of environmental issues and are always open to discuss new challenges, to find out more about Hubbub click here.
Community Fridge: Frome currently have 14 regular volunteers whose role it is to collect food from local businesses and maintain cleanliness of the fridge, however there is a lot of turnover in volunteers so they are always recruiting.
The fridge have connections with local supermarkets to help bolster their supplies, however they “need to be careful not to overstretch - there are days when one collection from M&S or Lidl completely fills the Fridge.”
For the safety of the fridge users, there are rules about what they will and won’t accept. They don’t take any meat, fish or eggs, as they are more risky foods, while the volunteers also won’t take anything if they feel it’s too far gone.
They also don’t take home-cooked food, as it can’t be verified that it has been cooked in a safe environment. However, the user bares the responsibility for taking food that they are happy with, but Helen feels it’s about time “we used sense more for checking the goodness of food, rather than Best Before dates.”
The episode I watched had originally aired in February 2017, and since then Hubbub have set up a Community Fridge Network throughout the UK. From Bournemouth to North Tyneside, the network now includes over 40 separate fridge’s providing an alternative to throwing away edible food.
The Network enables different projects to link up around the UK and IE allowing people to share ideas and knowledge.
I spoke to people in and around Newcastle about their thoughts on the idea and whether they believe it would benefit their local area. Here’s what they had to say.
The Hubbub website offers information on how to set up your own Community Fridge, they have put together a ‘How To’ guide and resource pack, or for information you can email communityfridge@hubbub.org.uk.