Haslemere’s Community Fridge has been forced to pause operations after overwhelming local demand outgrew its current home. Run by environmental charity Love Haslemere Hate Waste (LHHW), the fridge has redistributed hundreds of kilos of surplus food since its soft launch last November – but now urgently needs a larger venue and more volunteers to keep up.

Victoria Page, director of LHHW, said the initiative had exceeded all expectations: “We started small, with just a few people coming in each day. Last week, we served more than 90 families and redistributed more than 300kg of rescued food. The appetite for this in the community is huge.”

Describing the food as “rescued”, Page explained it comes from farms, factories and retailers with excess stock – perfectly edible produce that would otherwise be sent to landfill. The initiative 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.

“This isn’t scraps or leftovers,” she said. “It’s good food that just can’t be sold. We’re offering a solution to the staggering issue of food waste in the UK, where a third of all food is wasted.”

The Community Fridge, based at Green and Blue Studios on the Unicorn Trading Estate, has quickly become a lifeline for many amid the cost-of-living crisis. “Green and Blue Studios has been an amazing home and has shown us that this is a really needed resource within the community. But the current site can no longer accommodate the scale of demand.”

LHHW is now appealing for a new location and more hands to help. “We’re at capacity. We need a bigger home – and more volunteers – so we can keep serving the community and prevent food from going to waste.”

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