Tales from lockdown

“Our volunteers who have been manning the fridge since lockdown had a (socially distanced) standing ovation from five elderly ladies from the nearby residential scheme!”

“People tell us that good quality, free food has made a huge difference at this time. From feeding families, improving mental health, encouraging people to try new food, to improving diets.” “One of our regulars, Mrs C, is 89, lives alone, has no close family, and suffers from extremely poor health. She’s shielding, so can’t go to the shops and doesn’t have internet access to order supermarket deliveries. The meals we deliver to her have been, in her words, “a life-saver” and she looks forward to the daily visits of the delivery driver, because they are the only person she sees all week.”

“Many people say the highlight of their week is to see what’s in their ‘goodie bag’ and really appreciate the food to keep them going while their income is reduced and more mouths to feed at home. We also share recipes and ideas for keeping food fresh for longer, or tips for freezing.” “We get the 90-year-olds who say “Oh, I grew up during the war, I’ll take anything!” to the 90-year-olds who are horrified at the thought of receiving fruit and veg but are VERY keen on chocolate

easter eggs.”

“We’ve been experiencing an amazing surge in community coming together!”

Our impact

110 community fridges

4 million equivalent number of meals redistributed 2,000 tonnes food redistributed

Over 275 volunteers involved

150,000 unique beneficiaries

Impact of the Community Fridge Network

NOVEMBER 2019 - OCTOBER 2020

Volume of food redistributed by the CFN (tonne)

280

260

240

220

200

180

160

140

120

100

80

0 84 87 91

Nov Dec Jan

Volume of food redistributed by the CFN (tonne)

93

Feb 98 103 103 103 104

Mar Apr May June

Number of open Community Fridges

July 104

Aug 18,000

17,000

16,000

15,000

14,000

13,000

12,000

107 110 11,000

10,000

9,000

8,000

Sep Oct 0

Number of unique visitors or users of Community Fridges

users of community fridges Number of unique visitors or

In what ways are community fridges impacting households?

Helped to reduce food waste as people donate to the fridge

Helped to reduce food waste as people have received food saving advice/recipes at the fridge

Helped to feed families

Made people feel they can trust the local community more

Helped individuals/families to eat a greater range of foods

Helped individuals/families to eat more fruit and veg

2019 2020

In addition to sharing good food, community fridge spaces are used for…

These additional uses of fridge spaces lead to…

Food skills support households to eat well for less.

Community food growing helps communities to become more food secure and increasing resilience to future shocks.

Cooperative purchasing supports community resilience by increasing access to affordable food. Cooking workshops or community kitchen

Growing activities Sharing of household items or skills Clothes swap Food co-op Refill/reuse/repair service Delivering food surplus parcels to households 2019

2020

Who uses community fridges? BASED ON OUR COMMUNITY FRIDGE COORDINATOR SURVEY IN 2020

63% of the users are known to the community fridge Co-ordinators to be facing financial hardship.

“The vast majority are people who are struggling to make ends meet. They may be on benefits or working, but on low wages. They broadly reflect the make-up of the local community. Prior to lockdown, we had a higher proportion of street homeless users; now we see a wider range of people, many are families and older people.” “I have heard people say, ‘I’m too middle class to use the community fridge!’, but once you talk to them more about food waste and explain to them that we can’t possibly re-distribute all the surplus without a concerted effort from everyone, they look at things differently.”

“During lockdown we experienced an increase in people visiting the fridge due to financial hardships from loss of jobs. Usually our regular visitors are those in difficult situations, such as single mothers, elderly folks experiencing financial difficulty and those who have unfortunately happened to fall on harder times.”

“Our fridge is located in an urban village setting. It’s a fairly affluent area but has pockets of poverty. Our fridge initially attracted lots of local people who wanted to make sustainable changes to their lifestyle. At the start of lockdown, we delivered parcels to those in need. Delivering to doorsteps once a week built up trust and sincere gratitude from those who we took time to help. When restrictions eased and we reopened the fridge, we have seen a huge increase of visitors. Some are out of work, some working from home, some are volunteering as they have more time, some are desperate. We get visited by a lot of refugees, families and older couples. We offer a friendly smile and take time to chat if appropriate.”

Stories from the communities

“A single mum with five kids came to the fridge to collect food at Easter and gave them all Easter eggs; the smiles will live with me forever.”

“One of my favourite parts of the project is the amazing volunteer group we have. It’s a real mix of people who help out and we’ve created lifelong friendships and relationships with people we wouldn’t usually meet in normal times.” “Sometimes we get birthday cakes from one of the shops. It’s really lovely when the cake can go to someone who happens to visit the fridge, who has a family member or friend whose birthday it is that day, or who might not otherwise have enjoyed a birthday cake.”

“People have brought things to gift to the fridge (almost in exchange), such as books, food they do not want and clothing.”

Where does the food come from?

The vast majority of food re-distributed via community fridges (95%) comes from national and local businesses. The rest is from domestic donations, including allotment holders.

Hubbub has developed a redistribution arrangement with seven retailers – Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco via Fareshare Go, Costa, Marks and Spencer and Pret a Manger. These retailers have committed to donating to any community fridge that is part of the network providing their local stores have capacity.

The following have also donated food to fridges across the country:

Asda Co-op Gail’s Bakery GOSH Hungry Horse IKEA John Lewis Lidl Little Tummy Local allotments Loop Run Odeon Pasquier SPAR TK Maxx WAP Foods Waitrose

Other existing food surplus redistribution schemes are linking up to support community fridges in different areas, such as UK Harvest and FareShare. Londonbased projects can receive donations from The Felix Project and Plan Zheroes. There are also numerous local donors such as local grocers, markets, bakeries, stores and cafes.

If your organisation would like to give your surplus food to the Community Fridge Network, please email communityfridge@hubbub.org.uk.

In the media

Since it was formed in 2017, the Community Fridge Network has had 713 pieces of coverage, with opportunities to see/hear of over 550 million.

Highlights include: National Geographic Food, Food and Travel magazine, The Guardian (print and online), iNews, Timeout, BBC NI (TV, radio & online), BBC Radio 4 (You & Yours), BBC news online, The Grocer, The Big Issue (online), Huffington Post blog picked up by Yahoo News, double page spread in Vegetarian Living.

We also get local and regional coverage as new fridges launched.

The launch of the 100th Community Fridge at Dumfries House by HRH the Prince of Wales generated 195 pieces of coverage with opportunities to see/hear of 229 million. Coverage include: Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail (print and online), Daily Express, Yahoo! UK & Ireland, MSN UK, A piece by Press Association was picked up by over 160 regional and local titles.

Our supporters

The Community Fridge Network is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and we collaborate with other organisations and businesses to support individual fridges across the country.

We’d like to thank Liebherr in particular for donating approximately 173 fridge and freezer units to members of the CFN as well as other food initiatives since 2018.

The following organisations have funded the set up and/or maintenance of individual fridges in the CFN since its inception:

Bosch ChangeX Climate Challenge Fund Morrisons Foundation North London Waste Authority Rothschild Foundation Sainsbury’s Samsung Southwark Council If your organisation wants to support individual fridges or fridges in specific regions, please email communityfridge@hubbub.org.uk

Challenges

COVID-19, coupled with the ongoing climate crisis, has laid bare the level of deprivation within UK society and amplified the urgent need to create more resilient communities. Community fridges are providing a lifeline for many, and in the wake of COVID-19 they have a key role in supporting community resilience by bolstering their existing impact.

However, many fridges are already considering the medium and long-term impacts of COVID-19.

Staying true to our ethos

The Community Fridge Network was founded as a movement to reduce food waste and foster community spirit. The fridges can be accessed by anyone, regardless of their background. In recent months, the fridges have seen an increase in users who are financially struggling because of COVID-19.

We don’t view surplus food as a solution to food poverty (or vice versa!) and know that community fridges cannot support the current level of demand within the UK. It is more vital than ever that we maximise the fridges’ potential to increase household resilience, at pace and at scale.

Maintaining new activities

Most fridges rely on grant funding to keep going, and some may not have the skills to maintain or improve their new offer (e.g. delivering food surplus parcels to households). We will upskill community leaders, so they are able to identify issues and needs throughout the project and take steps to mitigate any risks.

Resilience against future crises

This crisis shocked our fridges to the core, and in many cases highlighted the risks and weaknesses in each unique fridge. We will continue to support fridges in creating plans to pivot their strategy and operating model where possible, diversifying activities and becoming financially independent.

Looking ahead

As the UK rebuilds from the impact of COVID-19, Hubbub believes that community fridges can evolve to help the UK meet a range of financial, social and environmental challenges including cutting food waste, promoting healthy eating, supporting people facing financial challenges and tackling loneliness.

Helping this to become a reality is one of the policy calls within Hubbub’s Greenprint, a vision for a fairer, more sustainable UK. Within the Greenprint, we call on government to invest in Community Food Hubs which increase access to food skills and strengthen regional food economies.

Hubbub will continue to support the development of community fridges into ‘community food hubs’ and will be investing in trial areas to further test the concept, as well as sharing the results of the Food Connect trial in Milton Keynes which is using e-bikes and e-vans to help transport food surplus to community fridges.

Thank you

COMMUNITYFRIDGE@HUBBUB.ORG.UK Registered Charity Number 1158700