
A community Fridge in Scarborough is celebrating it's third birthday today.
Part of a 450 strong national network of Community Fridges, The Scarborough Fridge and Pantry operates out of Westborough Methodist Church every Saturday morning.
Founding member Ruth Fairchild says that since they launched they've seen a steady increase in the numbers of people using the fridge with over 16 hundred people using the service last year.
With the help of a dedicated group of volunteers, the fridge collects and distributes surplus food from local supermarkets and food retailers that would otherwise be thrown out. This is then redistributed at their Saturday morning drop in session at Westborough Methodist Church where everyone is welcome to drop in between 10am - 11am and take away a selection of what they have received that week
Ruth says they've seen an increase in users this year with around 35 people a week visiting the fridge, she says they will carry on providing the service as long as it is needed.
The Fridge team say that in 2022 they had 1628 visitors to the Fridge 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.
Ruth says the Fridge initiative has been a real team effort and couldn't have happened without the support of local people, organisations an businesses.
Ruth adds:
"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: scarboroughfridge@gmail.com
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