Longfield Community Fridge: Feed Bellies not Bins

Aim

Launch a Longfield Community Fridge to redistribute unsold food to supermarkets to help fight the climate crisis by feeding bellies not bins

Longfield Community Fridge: Feeding Bellies not Bins

Vision and Aims

Trowbridge Future are looking to extend their current Community Fridge project, the redistribution of leftover food from local supermarkets, by launching a further fridge on the Longfield Estate to support the health and wellbeing of local residents and families. This initiative will be launched on the back of our COVID response work and the significant need to support families that are suffering from food poverty. We will use the Community Fridge model as an opportunity to build relationships with local people to support their further social, health and emotional wellbeing and significant isolation many residents feel. We see the Community Fridge model as an ideal way of helping local residents build peer support networks amongst themselves. This project will tackle significant food poverty in the local community by enabling local people to see themselves as part of the solution of tackling climate change and the significant levels of food waste that we see from local supermarkets in Trowbridge and across the country. This takes away the stigma of getting additional support when people are most in need. We have a strong relationship with partner organisations such as the food bank, Rucksack (providing further essential items such as clothes) that we can refer people on to for support. We find many people who live on the Estate do not access the food bank to due accessibility, mobility issues or a sense of shame. We hope to break down some of those barriers through this project.

Through this funding we will deliver a weekly Community Fridge from Longfield Community Centre over a four month period, feeding up to 50 people each week. This will be a launch pad for further community and environment projects. We have a strong working relationship with Trowbridge Eco group and hope this project will led to further gardening projects with local people. We will work with Bath University research team to undertake a small survey with Fridge users to identify further issues and concerns that they might like to see addressed in the local community and further activities they would like to see delivered. We are fortunate to have an Arabic speaking member of staff who also regularly attends the local mosque on the Longfield Estate that will enable us to access a diverse demographic.

What we are asking for?

We will use this money to support the delivery of the project through the staff costs of our Community Manager and Community Support Worker. The costs of a van hire, maintenance and running costs to pick up deliver the food to the Fridge. As well as a small amount of money for top up items for those essential items we recognise that local people simply can't afford. 

This project successfully funded on 13th October 2021