Thurso Community Fridge - You Can Help Give This Fund -raiser a wee push

30th January 2019

We're looking to establish a Community Fridge in Thurso - but we need you help to do it!

There are currently 32 Community Fridges across the UK and their numbers are growing. A Community Fridge is open to all and it's key aim is to minimise food waste in a community. Did you know that in the UK it is estimated every household throws away £700-£800 worth of food? That's just households, the levels of food waste from Supermarkets and Businesses is much higher.

So imagine...that cheese you bought that you thought you would eat but ended up throwing away, those rolls from the Bakery that are still perfect to eat but they can't put out the next day, that over order on yogurt at the Supermarket - all going to the bin. Unless, there is another solution! Pop it into the Thurso Community Fridge for someone else to get use from.

Our fridge will be housed in a custom built shed in Thurso precinct. It will be open from 8am - 8pm. Fulfil all food hygiene regulations and manned by a wee team of volunteers. Signage outside the fridge will educate about food waste and we’ll keep a record of just how much food we are saving from hitting landfill.

The fridge is open to everyone to take what they need from it. Some days it might be superstocked, other days less so. It might be you’re heading to the Supermarket to buy carrots, check the fridge, carrots there - no need to buy, use those ones up. Another day you might be passing from the Supermarket with carrots, knowing you are only going to use a couple from the bag - so pop the rest into the fridge for someone else.

A Community Fridge is about sharing. That’s the best bit of it, sharing instead of just throwing away. But it has other benefits, most of us can all recall a month where we maybe had too much month to money. So it’s an informal way of helping out. There is of course the food bank and we are in no way attempting to step on toes but a Community Fridge is an informal way of accessing fresh food when life might be a bit of a struggle.

As we said, it’s about sharing, it’s about creating a community. It’s also a whole lot of fun, what might be in the fridge today!

We’ve joined the Hubbub Community Fridge Network - we can get a fridge for free. But we need a custom built shed, lock, set up to electricity, signage and our first years running costs (electricity and cleaning materials). We estimate we need around £1000 to get it up and running and cover our first year costs.

We really believe in this as just one of our projects to bring Thurso together and make it a better place to live and work for everyone.

To make a donation to this project go to
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/thurso-community-fridge