Community Fridge Network Impact Report | 30th March 2022 | Hubbub

NETWORK I M PA C T R E P O R T J A N U A RY - D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1

TA B L E O F CONTENTS Welcome from the team

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Our impact at a glance

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Meet the Community Fridge

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Our ethos

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Partnering with Co-op

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Activity highlights

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Media coverage: a summary

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Looking ahead: 2022 and beyond

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Case Study

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Get involved

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Thanking our supporters

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A note on our data

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WELCOME FROM THE TEAM

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Despite these challenges, Community Fridges continued to operate with creativity and dedication to their community, going from strength to strength while offering services and support far beyond the sharing of food.

We saw significant interest in and demand for groups wanting to open new Community Fridges, with the network growing from 141 to 247 members over the year, and the outlook for 2022 is looking better than ever.

elcome to the 2021 annual report for the Community Fridge Network [CFN]. The CFN is hosted by Hubbub – an environmental charity with a passion for great food and making the most of all of our resources.

Community Fridges are spaces that bring people together to eat, connect, learn new skills and reduce food waste.

Centred around the community, they’re open to anyone and everyone to share food that would otherwise have gone to waste. Supermarkets, producers, cafés and households can all give fresh food they don’t need, provided it meets our safety standards.

This report sets out the growth and impact of the CFN from January – December 2021 and takes a look ahead at what 2022 holds. If you would like to join, support or learn more about the Community Fridge Network, we would love to hear from you.

Across a national network of over 270 sites, people can also take part in cooking activities, learn new skills such as how to grow food, or simply drop in for a chat. In the context of rocketing food prices and widespread loneliness many Community Fridges are a lifeline and valuable meeting place at the heart of their community.

Liam Sweeney The Community Fridge Network Manager

Looking back at 2021, it was another challenging year for the British public, but also for the many organisations running community projects across the UK. Covid-19 continued to affect the running and operations of Community Fridges. Co-ordinators of fridges saw an unprecedented surge in the demand for food related support, illness and quarantine continued to affect the availability of volunteers, and nationally disrupted supply chains caused fluctuations in the availability of food to share.

It’s just amazing how a little bit of hard work can bring the community together.

We now have allotment owners bringing in surplus crops and gardeners bringing in their gluts of apples and tomatoes.

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O U R I M PA C T AT A G L A N C E In 2021, we estimate that the Community Fridge Network

Stopped

Operated with the support of

3,150

3,540

tonnes of food going to waste

volunteers

Had

Shared

1 million+

7,500,000

visits by the public

meals worth of food

At Christmas time it was amazing, it meant we had a proper Christmas dinner. I live in bedsits and I was able to cook for everybody and deliver it around the studios.

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W H AT I S A C O M M U N I T Y FRIDGE AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Community Fridges are independent community assets, set up, owned and managed by not for profit and community organisations. Each Community Fridge is unique to its location, and they come in all forms; from community centres and schools to shipping containers, cafés and shopping centres. They can be found in any community setting, with some open every day and others operating a couple of hours a week.

All Community Fridges must register as a food business with their local authority and are responsible for their own food management systems and building relationships with any local businesses. Hubbub helps fridges to open with support including: Ϙ Funding for set up costs (where available) Ϙ Donations of equipment including fridges Ϙ Guidance on setting up and operating safely Ϙ Access to professionally designed resources Ϙ Access to ongoing technical and peer-to-peer support.

Where you will find Community Fridges:

I think it’s such a fabulous idea. I pop in several times a week. The volunteers are so friendly and welcoming.

38 in Scotland

3 in Northern Ireland

203 in England 26 in Wales

Numbers as of March 2022

To find your nearest Community Fridge, go to hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge 5

OUR ETHOS Community Fridges are open to all and operate on an honesty basis.

Hubbub is an environmental charity and cutting food waste is one of our core objectives.

We don’t see the provision of surplus food as a long-term solution to food poverty.

However, we recognise that for many the Community Fridge and access to free food may offer crucial support in difficult circumstances.

We, along with organisations across the food and charity sector, continue to call on the Government to ensure that people have enough income to cover their living expenses adequately and access healthy food with dignity.

Our hearts are overwhelmed every day we see people coming through our doors and going out with their face filled with smiles. Food can bring people together in a way nothing else could.

PA R T N E R I N G

PA R T N E R I N G WITH CO-OP At the start of 2021 we announced our new partnership with Co-op who, through their Community Partnership Fund, supported the expansion of the CFN by funding 100 new Community Fridges with £4,000 towards each of their set up costs. This provided a unique opportunity to grow the network at a greater scale and speed than would otherwise be possible, and paved the way for further opportunities to support the network as a result of Co-op’s support.

After the successful allocation of funding for the 100 groups, this was followed by an announcement that Coop would commit to fund the growth of the network to 500 members by the end of 2023, by funding a further 250 Community Fridges. This partnership is proving transformative for the scope and capacity of the Community Fridge Network. It will extend our reach and impact, and together we’re aiming to support the opening of a fridge in every county in the UK, and develop 50 food hubs (more on that later!).

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ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS In spite of lockdowns and other Covid-19 related challenges, we had a busy year with plenty of activity and lots to celebrate across the Community Fridge Network.

Highlights included:

106 new fridges opened

Funding secured for 63 ‘food hubs’ across the network

Funding secured to see 500 open fridges by 2023

650 applications from community groups all across the UK for Co-op funding

12 fridge visits from Members of Parliament

The 200th Community Fridge launch at the Lancaster West Estate in London

Community Fridges featured in the first ever live Christmas advert on British TV, hosted by Dermot O’Leary and Big Zuu

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O U R I M PA C T I N 2 0 2 1 3000

2500

1200

2000 900 1500 600 1000 300

0

155

168

176

189

199

150

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Average number of visits per fridge

208

210

220

Jul

Aug

Sep

Average volume of food shared per fridge (kilograms)

230

Oct

238

247

Nov

Dec

500

0

Number of open Community Fridges (at month end)

It’s absolutely saved us.

Our earnings don’t entitle us to any support but leave us with very little for essentials such as the food shop.

Without the Community Fridge it would be really hard to stay afloat.

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Average volume of food shared per fridge (kilograms)

Average number of visits per fridge

1500

MEDIA COVERAGE: A S U M M A RY 1,097 pieces of coverage to date, with opportunities to see/ hear of over 903 million.

2021 highlights include National Geographic Food, Food and Travel magazine, The Guardian (print and online), inews, Timeout, BBC NI (TV, radio & online), BBC Radio 4 (You & Yours), BBC news online, The Grocer, The Big Issue (online), Huffington Post blog picked up by Yahoo News, double page spread in Vegetarian Living.

The Co-op live festive television commercial, which went out during Coronation Street, was covered by PA. This generated coverage in over 85 regional papers and national papers including The Mail online, The i, The Independent Daily Edition and Yahoo! UK and Ireland. The ad was named ad of the week by The Drum and The Grocer.

Ongoing coverage secured around new funding announcements with prominent mentions for partners including Co-op, The National Lottery and Southwark Council.

The announcement of the partnership with Co-op to expand the network generated 61 pieces with over 28 million opportunities to see/hear about the project. Coverage included The One Show, BBC Radio Manchester and TalkRadio, The Daily Mirror (both in print and online) and The Grocer (both in print and online) and a PA write up was picked up by 16 local/regional titles in print, such as Yorkshire Post and Liverpool Echo.

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The launch of Lancaster West Community Fridge was featured twice on BBC Radio London ‘Make a Difference’ segment and on ITV London evening and late night news.

ITV ran a special feature by Alex Beresford on eight regional news programmes about food waste and Community Fridges, including an interview with Liam Sweeney from Hubbub in a Co-op store with tips on how to reduce food waste.

The latest push to encourage community groups in specific regions to apply for funding generated 47 pieces with OTH/S of over 20.8 million, including interviews with Liam Sweeney on ITV Border, BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire and BBC Radio Ulster as well as 32 regional print and online pieces.

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LOOKING AHEAD: 2 0 2 2 A N D B E YO N D Food hubs Our ambition is to deepen the impact of the Community Fridge Network as well as supporting new fridges. We have secured funding from Co-op and the Rothschild Foundation to establish 60 food hubs across the CFN, whereby fridges can establish additional services and initiatives beyond sharing surplus food in the community.

Funding Hubbub will continue to seek, create and signpost further funding opportunities for interested community-based organisations to develop Community Fridges in their local community.

Volunteers The team will continue to help fridge co-ordinators with strategies to more effectively recruit, retain and support volunteers.

Training Further training opportunities as highlighted from our fridge coordinators will be explored, such as safeguarding, fundraising and project management.

Digital platform Groups will soon have access to a one-stop platform where they can access guidance, information and resources to set up their fridge, plus the ability to communicate with other groups across the network, while seeing the impact of their fridge in real-time.

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LISTENING TO MEMBERS Successfully setting up and running a Community Fridge is an amazing achievement, and we’re honoured to work with so many talented and brilliant groups who are changing the way their communities see food, and are turning a simple fridge into a hub for the community.

We had an older person who came in as he was signposted to us for a food parcel. Now he comes in regularly and manages his money well through the support of the Community Fridge.

As we continue to grow the network its becoming increasingly important for us to understand how we can best support each group, and how the Network can continue to offer opportunities to develop other initiatives.

Even with our guidance, there are so many other possibilities out there that groups want to explore, and each location has its own challenges. We asked CFN members what they would like support with in the coming year, and this is what they said:

Grant funding opportunities

Bid writing for project funding

Supporting, recruiting and retaining volunteers

Future opportunities to support groups

Safeguarding

Guidance on freezing food/ food safety 12

Project management and planning

C A S E S T U DY : S T O N E H O U S E COMMUNITY FRIDGE Leadworks & The Kintsugi Project have partnered to support people with learning disabilities, asylum seekers and refugees in Plymouth. They host a community garden project, Community Fridge and a range of social activities aimed at building social and community cohesion and support those who are marginalised and socially isolated.

Their experience of hosting: Our volunteers report that their involvement as part of the fridge project has massively impacted their lives, both in terms of confidence and also in combatting loneliness. During their volunteering slot they spend time in the public living room space for a good few hours socialising. They talk to fridge users, come up with ideas and have developed some new projects to continue to bring the community together.

We have begun to find that the fridge is a vehicle for bringing people together in a way we couldn’t have expected.

Who is using the fridge?

We have a number of local artists, professionals and community workers who also take and give to the fridge. Everyone uses our fridge, including our volunteers. We often have groups of mums come after the school drop off and as such now hold some hygiene products and baby products to support them.

What’s unique or special?

That the fridge really is free for all. There is no stigma to using it and we often find it draws in people to offer and connect more with their community after attending.

It is situated in a public living room and community cafe which means you can come to socialise as well as use the fridge to share food.

The fridge is changing the way our community interacts.

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G E T I N V O LV E D The Community Fridge Network is a national movement with opportunities for all to get involved. Ϙ Community Fridges can always use more volunteers. Visit co-operate.coop.co.uk/food to see if there is an opportunity nearby for you. Ϙ If you’re a resident with a passion for community and the environment, why not set up a Community Fridge in your local area? Visit hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge Ϙ We work with businesses and organisations of all sizes and across multiple sectors to build long-term sustainable partnerships, from well-known retailers to local authorities and leading utility firms. If you want to explore supporting the CFN in any way, get in touch at hello@hubbub.org.uk OR liam@hubbub.org.uk

We’re lucky to live in a beautiful area of the green belt, and there are lots of avid gardeners within the community. We put out a plea on our social media for donations of any glut that people had from their allotments, and we have consistently been surprised with beautiful produce, including a gigantic pumpkin!

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THANKING OUR SUPPORTERS We offer our sincere thanks to the network of dedicated volunteers and co-ordinators across the UK who set up and run Community Fridges.

And none of the work of the Community Fridge Network would be possible without the generous support (financial and otherwise) of our partners. The following organisations have a made a huge contribution to the growth of the movement and continued support of over 270 Community Fridge groups nation wide.

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A N O T E O N O U R D ATA Hubbub sends a survey to all Community Fridges each quarter to understand activities happening on site, as well as to capture how much food is being shared, estimated numbers of visitors and any challenges that co-ordinators and/ or volunteers are experiencing.

Community Fridges that are not funded by any of our partners report their data on a voluntary basis while our funded fridges have an agreement in place to report food and visitor data.

Hubbub calculates the estimated impact of the CFN overall once a year, based on the survey data we receive. The impact in this report has been calculated from data shared by over 90 fridges across the year. We calculate average food shared based on the total tonnage reported, and multiply that by the number of fridges open by that month to report estimated monthly and annual distribution of food. We use 420g as a typical meal size to estimate the number of meals’ worth of food shared. The same methodology is applied to the visitors – taking an average based on reported figures and multiplying by the number of fridges open in that period.

Newly opened fridges make up a large proportion of our sample in late 2021. Due to their newly opened status and naturally limited capacity, those fridges have resulted in reduced averages for the CFN overall against 2020. We estimate that the more mature fridges in the CFN shared on average 2.3 tonnes per month in 2021.

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T H A N K YO U

COMMUNIT YFRIDGE@HUBBUB.ORG.UK Registered Charity Number 1158700