09/10/2023
It’s eye-opening on two levels, explains Abena, the volunteer officer who runs the community fridge at Hinckley Children and Family Centre.
Firstly, the food waste. The waste is off the scale. What they take in from the local supermarkets, some of it isn’t even close to its sell-by. It’s just the shops have ordered too much. Or they need space for something else.
Their freezer, as a result, runs on a regimented first in, first out, so they’re ready for action when Neighbourly makes its food delivery on Wednesdays.
Add to that all the fresh produce – the bread, eggs, fruit and veg – that, if not for the fridge, its volunteers and its visitors, would instead feed landfill and decay into gases that wreck the climate.
As Abena says, Hinckley Community Fridge, now in its fifth year, is primarily an eco project. It’s there to put the stoppers on food waste. As such, on Fridays, if there’s any bread left, a lady collects it to feed her pigs.
As for the second eye-opener. It’s the number of people using the fridge. It’s grown throughout the year. Of course, the word gets around, and people don’t want food to be wasted. But salaries no longer stretch to the end of the month, and working people either use the fridge or go hungry.
“Times are really hard for people,” says Abena, “and it shows in how grateful they are. Even if it’s just bread and eggs. It’s been an eye opener to see how many people are struggling. People who are working full time and struggling to afford food after they’ve paid their bills. We’re getting more people on a regular basis and some families come every day.”
Mostly, she says, their customers want food that’s cheap to cook. A lot don’t have an oven, but have a microwave, or air fryer. They want food that will cook using minimal energy to keep costs down.
About 99 per cent of donations at Hinckley are via Neighbourly. They also take fruit and veg donations from local growers. Morrisons gave them £200 worth of tins and dried goods recently. But the majority of food comes from local supermarkets.
“We do find that Thursdays are our busy days,” adds Abena. “We get around 48 to 50 people, and other days around 20 to 35 on average. We do try and signpost people to the foodbank, if needs be, we do find people are reluctant to use the foodbank. They try it, don’t like it, or there’s a delay in getting vouchers. The Salvation Army do a lunch scheme, but you have to pay for it.”
There's another issue. To run Hinckley Community Fridge, they need volunteers. Abena herself started out as a volunteer, and when the officer job was advertised, she got it. Now it’s her role to recruit, train and retain people to keep things going, and at other places where volunteers are the difference between open and closed.
Last week, due to a volunteer shortage, Hinckley Community Fridge was only open for 2.5 hours over two days.
“We always need more volunteers,” says Abena, “and, ideally, we’d have a community fridge in the surrounding villages, in Barwell and Earl Shilton, as well. If you'd like to stop food waste, if you'd like to help people, please get in touch.”
If you're interested in helping, please send a direct message on the Hinckley Community Fridge page.
