In Wellington, the average household throws away an avoidable $599 worth of food each year. This makes up ⅓ of our kerbside waste going to landfill and doesn’t account for supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. This type of food waste is unacceptable, especially when we have so many going hungry in our city. A new project has begun in order to deal with these issues, The Community Fridge. The Wellington Community Fridges Project will tackle domestic food waste and food accessibility in our city suburbs and prompt people to think about how we, as individuals and as a city engage with food consumption. The Community Fridge will be a local drop off point where people and businesses can donate their excess food and then other people can help themselves to this food. The idea being “take what you need and leave what you don’t”, creating a sharing economy around food. There are successful Community Fridges all over the world,including Auckland and Christchurch.
The Wellington Fridges will be located in Newtown and Aro Valley and will be available to anyone. The fridges will initially have set opening hours and will be cleaned and organised by volunteers throughout the day. The Wellington Community Fridges Project is supported by the Wellington City Council and will be co-ordinated by me, Sarah Child. You may remember me from such projects as, Plastic Free July, September Spring Clean or The Community Cargo Bike. Ultimately though, the Fridges are community owned, so we would love for anyone interested to get involved. There are plenty of ways you can support the Community Fridges with skills, time or creativity. Contact me at communityfrdigeswellington@gmail.com or you can join our Facebook group Community Fridges Wellington.