Scarborough Community Fridge and Pantry celebrates third birthday

The Community Fridge first began operating from The Street before moving to its current home at Westborough Methodist Church in November 2021.

Their aim is to stop good food from going into landfill unnecessarily.

1/3 of all food produced globally is wasted and in the UK the figure stands at 4.5 million tonnes of still viable food thrown away every year at an average cost to each UK household of £730 p.a.

A spokesperson from the Community Fridge said: “With the help of our dedicated group of volunteers we collect donations of produce from a number of local food retailers that would otherwise be discarded.

“It’s our brilliant team of volunteers who have made it possible to operate our service for the past three years and we always welcome enquiries from potential new volunteers.

"We are currently recruiting drivers to pick up donations locally and volunteers to help with the smooth running of our Saturday sessions including greeting visitors, maintaining high cleanliness standards and helping with the fair distribution of food. Enquiries are invited to: [email protected]”

Donations are redistributed at our Saturday morning drop in session at Westborough Methodist Church. Everyone is welcome to come along between 10am - 11am and take away a selection of what they have received that week.

In 2022, 1628 poeple visited the Fridge, which is an average of 31 people per week.

In the first half of 2023 this number rose by 26% to an average of 35 visitors per week.

Founding Committee Member Ruth Fairchild says: "Thanks to our many volunteers and customers over the last three years we have saved good food from going to waste.

"We’re grateful to our many food donors, both businesses and individuals, Westborough Methodist Church for providing us with the space to work and to CAVCA and The Street for helping us to start up.

"The current economic climate poses many challenges and we will continue to work hard to reduce food waste in Scarborough.”