Back in 2017, a People’s Fridge was installed at Pop Brixton in London. A free food fridge, it was a place where people could leave surplus food and others could pick up free food, whenever they liked.
Environmental charity, Hubbub, launched a further 50 community fridges across the UK. Each fridge saves half a tonne of food waste per month.
The network has been backed by The National Lottery Community Fund, Sainsbury’s, The Rothschild Foundation, Bosch, North London Waste Authority, the Morrison’s Foundation, Samsung and the Climate Challenge Fund.
And now the community fridge network is going to double in size.
This spring, 50 more Community Fridges will be added to the existing network over the next 22 months.
Trewin Restorick, Founder and CEO, Hubbub said: “We’re thrilled with how successful Community Fridges have been and the rapid growth of the Network. The Fridges not only save valuable food, they help bring people together and have become real community hubs. Some people had doubts at the outset as to whether the Community Fridge Network would work, but the Fridges have developed to be positive, social spaces that have proven the doubters wrong. We’d encourage anyone interested in visiting or opening a Fridge to visit our website and we’d love even more businesses to get involved as demand is outstripping supply in some areas.”
Food waste is a huge issue in the UK. Did you know we throw away £13 billion worth of food each year at home? The 50 Community Fridges redistribute an average of 25 tonnes of food each month, which is equal to 50,000 meals. These fridges are a low-cost way of tackling food waste in the hospitality service, as well as creating a route to food for people who are going hungry.
Community fridges don’t just save food from being binned and helping to combat food poverty. In a survey of 21 Community Fridges, 50% of locations said people are sharing skills, 45% stated their Community Fridge is linked to cooking and growing workshops and 30% said people are sharing other household items.
Find where your nearest Community Fridge is here along advice on how to set up a Community Fridge.
