Settle Community Fridge and Public Living Room

Aim

Settle Community Fridge helps redistribute surplus food. Our Public Living Room provides a friendly, welcoming space, hot meals and company.

Who are we?

Settle Community and Business Hub was set up in 2016 and since then we have  been running a range of events and activities from our offices in Commercial Courtyard, at Settle Quaker Meeting House and also online during covid. We work with local residents, charities, community groups and businesses.

What we do..

Our Community Fridge is a great way of reducing fruit and veg waste from local supermarkets but also allows local gardeners, residents and businesses to pass on surplus food they will not use. During covid we often acquired food from local pubs and restaurants due to unexpected lockdowns or large group cancellations. We also, sadly, received food donations as a result of local business closures.

Many people just bring a tin of soup, some apples from their tree, a jar of jam or leftover food from when they stocked up for visitors.. but if they can't bring anything that is OK. 

In a small community like ours there is a lot more need than many people think. This 'Bring What You Can, Take What You Need' ethos means it is much easier for people to engage with us without the stigma of a visiting a food bank.  

Our Public Living Room is open to anyone who wants to come along at Settle Quakers on Mondays and Thursdays every week from 10.30am to 1.30pm. We offer hot drinks and meals, our visitors can play card games or Connect 4, there is always a jigsaw to do, craft activities or help with cooking, but no pressure to do anything if people just want a chat and some company. 

There are now many Public Living Rooms around the country and all are warm welcoming places with people who listen, who treat everyone the same, who don't judge or try to fix each other.

Connect 4 has been a surprise hit. Everyone now knows how to play and loves it!

Hub staff are on hand to have a chat with people who may need a bit more support in general or who may need specific help understanding bills, advice about energy saving, help with filling in forms or directing them to other organisations or support if necessary.

Community impact

A lot of what we do is about reducing isolation and offering opportunities to connect, learn and contribute in some way. Most of the people coming to our activities live alone, many are on a low income or benefits, several have long term physical and/or mental health issues.

We have ended up with a lot of older visitors, especially since covid, including several who had lost loved ones and were finding it hard to access relevant support. We were the only local group who met in person throughout covid and so offered a safe supportive place for people who were struggling with the isolation and other problems. Over time it has been wonderful to see many new friendships form and see our visitors getting out and about again and enjoying life.

Supporting people to try baking or help improve their basic cookery skills is a big part of what we do at our Public Living Room. As we get so much free fruit and veg we often get visitors to prepare simple foods like Greek salad or a fruit crumble. Ted is our oldest regular and he loves making cakes, the picture above shows him making some very tasty spiced pear muffins.

We are very grateful to the Quakers, local residents, businesses and others who support what we do by offering free or very low cost talks and activities. Simple things like art sessions, making soap or fused glass are hugely popular and give people a chance to try their hand at something new.  

We have several folk coming in to do one-off or regular activities at our Public Living Rooms like Clare, above, who does hand massages which are extremely popular. Her oils have a very relaxing effect on Harold's dog Sam too!

Why are we crowdfunding?

With the cost of living crisis and people buying more reduced price food in supermarkets, this means we are now collecting a lot less fresh fruit and veg donations than we were a year ago. As individuals are struggling, our cash and food donations from local people have reduced too.

We are having to buy a lot more basic food like potatoes, carrots, onions, oil, butter, cheese as well as tea and coffee to offer at our Community Fridge. We have been able to get some funding for this but it has disappeared quickly. We are getting much busier at the same time as food costs are rising and our veg and cash donations have reduced.

At some times of the year we get a lot of fresh fruit and veg from local allotments, however, in winter there is always very little of this, so we are currently having to buy a lot more than we have ever needed to before.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We would use the money raised to buy extra food to supplement what we get donated at the Community Fridge and for ingredients to cook healthy meals at the Public Living Room.

We currently have some short term money to extend our Community Fridge opening hours and want to continue to offer three sessions a week.  

We would also like to pay one of our staff members to do a few more hours a week talking to our visitors at the Public Living Room about energy saving, ensuring they are getting grants and benefits they are entitled to, as well as helping people switch to cheaper broadband and mobile phone tariffs.

This project successfully funded on 5th April 2023