Community Fridges and Larders
Save Our Food!
Community Fridges and Larders are publicly accessible fridge / freezer / ambient spaces that offer food for free to everyone in a local area. They make use of surplus food that would have otherwise gone to waste – mostly from businesses but also from households.
Surplus food from businesses may be short dated, have damaged packaging or be an end of line product. Whilst from households it might consist of allotment gluts or food that you aren’t going to manage to eat if you are perhaps going on holiday or moving. Redistributing this food via a Community Fridge or Larder means that this food gets eaten as intended and doesn’t end up as waste.
Community Larders also tend to have a focus on those in more need within the community and so also accept food donations as gifts – like food banks do.
Linked below are the fridges and larders that we are aware of around the county that are open to all and aim to reduce food waste.
Check local details for opening times and what they can and can’t accept. Most of these projects are volunteer run so they may also appreciate your help if you have any spare time as well as food!
Find your local Community Fridge / Larder on the following list or on the community groups map here.
East Devon:
Open Door, Exmouth Community Fridge
SAVE Food Hub – East Devon (various locations)
Seaton Library Community Fridge
Exeter:
Exeter University Community Fridge
Mid Devon:
Crediton Community Food Larder
Rerooted Community Fridge Tiverton
South Hams:
Teignbridge:
Exminster (Westbank) Community Larder
Goodwill Community Fridge (Bickington)
Moretonhampstead Community Larder
Starcross (Westbank) Community Larder
Torridge:
North Devon:
South Molton Community Fridge & Kitchen
West Devon:
If there isn’t a fridge or larder project near you then you could always check out the Olio app – both to see what’s on offer nearby and to give spare food away. If it’s still good to eat, then it can be shared for free – just take a snap and upload a description of what’s on offer. It’s up to the person requesting the item to arrange to collect it from you.
The Too Good To Go app is another one to try – this offers discounted food from businesses at the end of the day which is a win for people and the planet! It may be worth telling your local food businesses about the app to try and get more of them using it.
Both apps can be downloaded for free via your phone’s app store.
If you want to learn more about reducing food waste at home then head to Love Food Hate Waste.