Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Food-share ‘fridge’ feeds flurry of folk
HUNDREDS of people have passed through the doors of a community initiative which aims to stamp out food waste.
The West End Community Fridge, which celebrated its official launch on the August 4, is the brainchild of the Gate Church’s Carbon Saving Project.
It is the first of its kind to open in Scotland and aims to encourage residents to share surplus food and help reduce waste.
Lynsey Penny, project co-ordinator, admitted she was pleasantly surprised by the success the fridge has seen since its opening.
She said: “It’s been really good so far.
“We opened with reduced hours before the official launch and in the first three weeks we had more than 300 people come along to the fridge.”
“We’ve had loads of food donated to the project and just as many people come along to get the food as well which has been great.”
The success of the facility, which is based in Miller’s Wynd car park on Perth Road, has encouraged Lynsey to think about the benefits it could bring to the whole city.
She said: “We hope that somewhere down the line we can work with other community groups in Dundee to help them launch a similar project in their area.
“We’ve had no negative comments about ours so far.”
The community fridge is just one of the many projects run by the church’s carbon saving project.
Lynsey said: “Between the community fridge and our clothes swap project, we are being kept very busy.
“A lot of people came to the last clothes swap we had and we think it will be even more popular when the students start to return.”
The team behind the community fridge is hoping to take advantage of popular Dundee events to get its message out, and will have a stall at the Flower and Food Festival.