Knaphill Community Fridge

Why bother at all?

Food waste is a big issue in the UK. The average UK family wastes £810 a year by throwing away food and drink, and £3 billion is wasted by food sectors, at the same time four million people in the UK are living in food poverty. Despite growing awareness of food waste, there are few easy ways for people or businesses to get food near its 'sell by' date to others. Most food waste in the UK (4.5 million tonnes or 70%) is avoidable and could have been eaten had it been better managed. The community fridge in Knaphill enables us to share our abundance, minimise waste and source free food that would otherwise be thrown away .

Our story...

Back in 2019 we opened the first Community Fridge in the Woking area. From a shed on our church grounds we had a clear purpose of tackling food waste. During the pandemic we were able to not only help those visiting the fridge, but also through delivering food parcels to those unable to get out. Since then the work has grown. The cabin is much larger, we distribute food to hundreds of families a week, receive food from local supermarkets and is staffed by a team of volunteers from all over our wonderful community.

Over the years Knaphill Community Fridge has stopped over 162 tonnes of food from going into landfill.

How does it work?

Community Fridges are one tried and tested way of stopping good food ending up in the bin. They’re housed in public, accessible places, making surplus perishable food freely available to members of the public. Surplus food is provided by local supermarkets, businesses or members of the public and is then available for collection by people who need it. They work on an honesty basis.

You can also drop off good but unwanted food yourself, and/or help yourself to what’s on the shelves. If you are dropping food off please read the instructions and disclaimer prior to use.

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Knaphill Community Fridge Article / Published August 2024