M&S Uckfield

In October 221 a small team set up Uckfield Community Fridge on land near to the Foodbank and Luxford Field, backed and supported by the town council. The essence behind a community fridge is to fight food waste and support local people. It does this by collecting leftover food from businesses, then making it available to local residents and community groups free of charge. This includes individuals with limited access to affordable fresh and nutritious food. The project is a simple solution to wasting less and saving more. We liaised with local supermarkets regarding food donations and they have informed us of the desperate situation they have found people in, sometimes raiding supermarket bins for free food. Quite rightly they have expressed the health and safety issues with this. The community fridge would enable people access to this food without those unnecessary risks. Strict monitoring guidelines based on advice from the Food Standards Agency and the Council’s Environmental Health team ensure the fridge will operate to the highest quality standards. We are sure you are aware of the food poverty crisis and the particular impact of food poverty on children and their future. Universal credit payments have increased by 201% in our local area over the last year, and this is before the furlough scheme has ended. On a local social media group we have been aware of mothers pleading for help from strangers to pay for their children’s dinner. For people in need there is the foodbank, which offers emergency provision and should not be viewed as a long-term solution. For some there is a stigma tied to using foodbanks and people may be reluctant to make initial contact. Food parcels are nutritionally balanced and consist of tinned and dried foods. Foodbank use has increased year on year so there is clearly an on-going local need. We keep in touch with Uckfield Foodbank to complement each other’s work. However, the main difference is that Community Fridges are set up to be a longer-term feature of a community. They operate on a trust basis, are not means tested and are open to all. Community Fridges offer a source of fresh good quality food surplus for everyone. In many cases the most frequent items moving through the fridge are fruit and veg. Community fridges aim to bring people together to see good food be shared and eaten, instead of going to waste.

We collect food that would otherwise be wasted and feed our community. We are established opening our new premises in October 2023 which allows us to save more food and feed more people. We are moving to a Community Hub hopefully by the end of the year so will be able to increase our opening hours providing more services and food.