Community fridge saves 24,000 meals from landfill

Vix Ross (right) with fellow volunteers at Shepton Mallet Community Fridge

Ten tonnes of food, equivalent to 23,809 meals, was saved from landfill in the run-up to Christmas thanks to a community fridge.

Twenty volunteers in Shepton Mallet stocked the fridge with food they collected from local supermarkets, including sprouts, carrots and even two turkeys.

Anyone is allowed to take food from the fridge, which was set up primarily to reduce food waste.

"I cannot express how hard our volunteers worked," said volunteer Vix Ross. "At times it felt like a 24-hour task, but it was a huge success and we truly fulfilled our mission."

The fridge was crammed with Brussels sprouts, carrots and other festive food

"We take food that's perfectly edible that stores are going to throw away because it's coming up to its use-by or best-before date," Ms Ross said.

"We take it to the community fridge and give it away from there.

"People get to try some food that they don't often buy and we enjoy talking to people about recipe ideas, and thrifty meals – it's good fun.

"There were a lot of carrots and a lot of fruit and veg as well, so we like to think we're giving out healthy food."

Volunteers collected heaps of vegetables including broccoli

Ms Ross said the Shepton Mallet Community Fridge was always on the lookout for more volunteers to help with jobs such as collecting food, and opening and closing the centre.

"Come down to the fridge and come and see one of us and we can definitely get you on board," she added.