The story so far:
- Our founder Jenny Sims - formerly CEO of Pembrokeshire Frame, helped Wales's first Community Fridge set up in her locality whilst setting up the second herself at her base in Haverfordwest.
- We were funded by the Rank Foundation in 2021 to help Wales play catch up by rolling out ten Community Fridges in all corners of Wales, bringing the numbers on a par with the rest of the UK.
We helped get funding into place for the following 11 projects during the Summer of 2021:
Cemaes (Ynys Mon)
Crest Cooperative (Llandudno Junction)
Given to Shine (Wrexham town centre)
Caia Park Partnership (Caia, Wrexham)
Cultivate (Newtown)
Llanrumney Town Hall (Cardiff)
Pontardulais High Street Hub (Rhondda)
Rhuthun Town Hall (Denbighshire)
Refurbs Fflint (Flintshire)
Manidee Unltd (Newport)
ACE (Ely, Cardiff)
Where next?
We are now facing a good problem in that we have been inundated with a further 60 requests from communities in every part of Wales. We are currently seeking the resources and support to bring Community Fridge to the communities who have applied and to help develop and consolidate what has been built by offering specialist development support later in 2022. In preparation for this, we have been busy trialing training sessions and other forms of support.
The vision we have worked on, in consultation with Wales's Community Fridge Groups:
Beyond this of course, it is our intention to enable this new sector in Wales to become self-sustaining financially, inter-cooperative, professional, far-reaching and totally circular.
What could sustainable Community Fridges look like in Wales?
Check out the new design we did for Monmouthshire, a Community Food Hub where a Community Fridge is one interconnecting piece of a circular, interconnected picture:
Thank you to the Rank Foundation who believed in our programme when there had not much traction at all in Wales.
