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The Forest Row Community Fridge is a community initiative in Forest Row, East Sussex, that redistributes fresh surplus food.
How does the Forest Row Community Fridge work?
The Community Fridge team collect fresh, nutritious perfectly edible food that can no longer be sold or is no longer needed. They safely store produce in one of their four fridges and four freezers. Food is logged into the fridges and weighed back out so that they can track weight. They then redistribute this fresh produce to all that want to join the fight against food waste.
Who can use the Forest Row Community Fridge?
The Community Fridge is welcome to everyone.
Although the food is free, they welcome donations that help pay for their running costs.
They also operate thanks to a great team of volunteers, of whom without they wouldn’t be able to redistribute healthy delicious food.
Where does the food come from?
The Community Fridge team collect surplus food from predominately from supermarkets, but also from homes, and redistribute within the community.
Why is food waste a problem?
- 6.6 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year in UK households (WRAP)
- All the world’s nearly one billion hungry people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe (OLIO)
What do people who use the Community Fridge say?
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the help provided by the community fridge for getting my family through what potentially would have been an even worse time than what we were already going through.”
“Without this place and the kindness of others in the community we would have struggled a lot to simply put food on the table for our children. It’s not only been the pandemic but I have had real problems with my back making it impossible to walk some days and the fridge had taken such a huge weight of just supplying food and gifts for the children so they have not gone without.”
“This is such an important place for some families that truly had to rely on the help to see us all through. A massive thank you to everyone that has made this happen and I know I will be giving back what I can to help others in need.”
How is the Forest Row Community Fridge we funded?
The initiative is currently funded through a few different sources, including a grant from Sussex Community Foundation to help cover volunteer and running costs.
They accept donations from visitors who would like to pay for what they take. These voluntary donations go a long way to support our running costs.
They also accept sponsorships or support from local businesses.
How can you help?
The team need volunteers to pick up deliveries, to deliver food during the current changes and also volunteers to help with admin. If you’d like to get involved, please email [email protected] or visit forestrowcommunityfridge.org
