Community Fridge Network

Community Fridges are social sites of food education and sharing. They are housed in publically accessible places - making fresh food that would otherwise be wasted freely available to the community. Surplus perishable food is donated by local businesses or members of the public, and collected by people who need it. The average UK family wastes £470 a year by throwing away food and drink which could have been consumed. 61% of the food wasted in the UK (4.1 million tonnes) is avoidable and could be eaten if creative ways of sharing it are found. In 2016, environmental charity Hubbub set up our first Community Fridge in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, as part of a wider food waste initiative. From this initial trial, we saw how Community Fridges can help reduce food waste, give people access to healthy food, and bring communities together. Since then, we’ve been approached by more than 200 community groups seeking support to develop fridges in their area. This inspired us to create a freely available ‘How to Guide’ and resource pack, and establish the ‘Community Fridge Network’, to connect Community Fridge projects across the UK, creating a support service that will enable them to have impact and longevity. The Network is a group of Community Fridge projects operating across the UK that have met certain quality standards and are committed to supporting each other through sharing learnings and impact. The network is free to join and members have access to a range of resources as well as ongoing support from the Hubbub team. To date, 34 members have opened their fridge doors to the public – from Glasgow in the North to Torquay in the South. With another 36 in the pipeline, there will soon be more than 70 Community Fridges across the UK and IE. On average, each fridge redistributes 0.5 tonnes of surplus food every month that would have otherwise gone to waste.