THE Westbury Community Fridge has continued to help with the fight against food waste in Westbury and in December alone the fridge volunteers managed to collect and distribute 782.26kg – over three quarters of a ton – of food to those in the local community.
The Community Fridge, found at the Westbury Community Project on Eden Vale Road and run by volunteers from the Westbury Area Network (WAN), is open to everyone and is designed to reduce the amount of food going to waste in the town.
The WAN explained, “Our dedicated volunteers collect any food that would normally go into landfill from local supermarkets, but it is still fresh enough to consume. It is just not possible for the supermarkets to sell these items after the sell by dates, but these items are too good to be thrown away.
“In a time when money is often tight for many, these items can really help to reduce your shopping bill. In December of last year, the Community Fridge managed to collect and distribute 782.26kg of food. We saw over 1,000 customers during December and these include those that visit the Community Fridge to collect items and those that we distribute to within the community and in clubs, schools and nurseries.
“We have changed our opening times slightly, and we now open our doors from 10.30am until 11.30am. This is because most of the stock has usually been collected by 11.30am. Our opening days are the same – Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“Often those that do use the Community Fridge for the first time are surprised at the amount of food we have available. The amounts and items do vary but there is plenty to choose from. Please remember too that the Community Fridge is open to everyone and we appreciate all those that use our service in order to help prevent food waste, so please, if you haven’t had the opportunity to come along, please do pop in and see what we do.
Volunteers always welcome
“If you feel this is something that you would like to get involved in, all new volunteers would be very welcome to join our team. We are really friendly and if you would like to maybe get out more and meet new people, why not join us? We look forward to welcoming more volunteers.”
If you are interested in volunteering email westburyareanetwork@gmail.com and visit www.westburyareanetwork.org for more information.
