Mapplewell Community Fridge- An exciting first for Barnsley
Mapplewell Village Hall saw the launch of an exciting new initiative to Barnsley on the 5th November 2021, with Barnsley’s first Community Fridge. Coordinated and run by Leyla Brooke, the community fridge is a brilliant project centred around the reduction of food waste. Leyla’s community fridge has a team of volunteers who support in the running of the fridge based in Mapplewell, part of the Hubbub initiative.
The Community Fridge is stocked with short dated but great quality food from Co-Op, who donate stock to the fridge that would otherwise end up in landfill. Leyla’s team have already redistributed 342kg of food in the short time that they’ve been opened, and over 50 people in the local community have accessed the fridge to date with a total of almost 100 visits between them.
Since opening, Leyla and her team have developed a good community network on social media, with a Facebook group of volunteers sharing recipes and food ideas based on the foods they’ve gathered from their local community fridge. (You can see some of the meals that have been produced on this post.)
Leyla adds: “It is absolutely incredible the amount of surplus food we have prevented from going to landfill in a week. I am overwhelmed by the support from the community and cannot thank the wonderful volunteers for all their work with the project”.
If you’d like to get involved, you can find out more by contacting Leyla: leylabrooke@barnsley.gov.uk