Did you know that Uckfield Community Fridge opened in October?
The aim of the fridge is to fight food waste and support local people. It does this by collecting leftover food from businesses and individuals, then making it available to local residents and community groups free of charge. This includes individuals with limited access to affordable fresh and nutritious food.
Everyone in the community is invited to take food that they can make use of. No money is exchanged and we are open to all, no matter what individual circumstance or background is. This is because we all eat, and we all need food. We want to encourage sharing, caring, swapping and supporting one another to make use of food that is surplus. By being open to all, we smash stigma related to both poverty (which comes in all shapes and sizes) and surplus food (that is perfectly good to eat but too frequently destined for landfill).
The Community Fridge is housed in a shipping container and accessible from Luxford Field. Our address is The Source/Hub Garden, Civic Approach, Uckfield TN22 1AL (at the bottom of the short stay car park). We are open Tuesday, Friday and Saturday between 10-12.00. Since we opened on 2nd October we have saved 991.7 kgs of food from going to landfill and redistributed 95.2% of this to 383 households (albeit a combination of fridge regulars and first timers!)
Strict monitoring guidelines based on advice from the Food Standards Agency and the Council’s Environmental Health team ensure the fridge operates to the highest quality standards.
Why get involved?
Benefits tolocal businesses:
- A free service collecting food that would otherwise be thrown away, helping you to become a zero waste business.
- An opportunity to contribute positive social impact; supporting the local community, in particularly individuals who are in financial hardship.
- The chance to be credited as a business champion in the Community Fridge’s promotional materials, online pages and press.
We’d love to discuss how your business might be able to support the Community Fridge going forward and how we might be able to benefit your business. As well as food donations, we are also looking for business sponsors, support with PR and marketing, social media and support with building maintenance and electrical testing when required. We would love to hear from you.
Please contact uckfieldcommunityfridge@gmail.com if you think your business may like to get involved.