Environmental charity Love Haslemere Hate Waste (LHHW) is launching the town's first Community Fridge this autumn to help fight food waste.

Everyone is invited to the launch event at The Mill, Shottermill Ponds, on October 2, from 2pm to 3pm.

A spokesperson for LHHW said: “We would love as many local businesses and stakeholders to attend as possible. Whether someone runs a café or restaurant, has a village store, or is perhaps part of the management team in a national chain, we would love them all to come along. This will ensure that the Community Fridge project is a success.”

The Community Fridge, set to open at Green and Blue Studios on the Unicorn Trading Estate, aims to combat the staggering four million tonnes of good-to-eat food wasted by the UK food industry each year. National charity FareShare says this discarded food is enough to provide 10 billion meals.

LHHW added: “Throwing away perfectly good food just doesn’t make sense. It takes time, energy, and money to grow and process food, and even more energy when that food is thrown away. With many people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, we’d like to see that food redistributed to save people money and help look after our planet too.”

The Community Fridge will serve as a hub where residents and businesses can donate surplus food. Anyone can take what they need from the fridge, which will be open daily from 8am to 8pm.

To RSVP for the launch event, email: [email protected]