Westbury Community Fridge will be opening on the 20th March, and will be located in Crosspoint in Westbury’s Marketplace.
It is a joint project between Westbury Town Council, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Crosspoint.
“Four million people in the UK are living in food poverty,” said Kieran Thorburn at the town council. “Those that need food can’t access it, whilst it goes to waste elsewhere. A Community Fridge is a great way for food that would otherwise go to waste, be accessible to the public for free. The Community Fridge is also a fantastic opportunity for people to learn more about ways to help reduce food waste.”
The Community Fridge is being donated by Westbury Town Council and will be run entirely by volunteers, without them the Community Fridge would not be possible. If anyone is interested in learning more or you are interested in becoming a volunteer, then please contact Kieran Thorburn at the council on 01373 822232.
Crosspoint opening hours are: Monday 2.30pm – 5pm; Wednesday 2.30pm – 5pm; Thursday 10am – 12.30pm; Saturday 10am – 12.30pm.
“This is the first Community Fridge to open in Wilshire, which is great for Westbury, and we hope that this will encourage other local towns to also open a Community Fridge of their own,” added Kieran. “The estimated annual food waste arising within UK households, hospitality and food service, food manufactures, retail and wholesale sectors in 2015 was around 10 million tonnes. This had a value of over £20 billion a year and would be associated with more than 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
“The food that will be stored in the community fridge will have been donated by local supermarkets and food businesses and collected by the volunteers on a weekly basis, food that is home cooked will not be accepted. The fridge operates on an honesty basis, so please only take what you need.
“We’re really pleased to have been able to get the Community Fridge ready to be launched, I’m hopeful that it will benefit a lot of people in the town. I’d also like to thank everyone that has contributed so far to make this happen.”
