A Community Fridge and Larder launches in North Tawton to support residents this winter.
LiveWest funded nearly £1,000 to the project while Community Ventures CIC installed a Community Fridge into its community shop and hub, Merry Go Round, in North Tawton.
The community shop collects donations of edible fridge and larder food, as well as Christmas presents for struggling families, school uniform, children’s clothes, and books. It also provides a warm space where families can come for after school activities or local people can pop in and read a book.
Leanne Mathis, local resident and Assistant Manager of the Merry Go Round hub, said: “The community fridge, and larder has already had a huge impact, alongside donations of toys and items for Christmas. We are seeing families struggling who haven’t before and they are so relieved that we can help.
“One family fed back that they now felt they could have a Christmas. It has been lovely seeing the community come together to support the people who are struggling and at times been an emotional experience.”
The town has a foodbank collection once per week which is taken to Okehampton food bank. The Community Fridge aims to subsidise the foodbank by giving residents and businesses the opportunity to donate food to go to local residents.
North Tawton residents can help themselves to food stocked in the Community Fridge and on the larder shelves. The Merry Go Round hub is already making a difference to struggling families, but now with the addition of the Community Fridge, will support the community further due to the hardship many will be facing arising from the cost-of-living, fuel increase and food poverty.
Alison Knight, our Community Connector, said: “We are very pleased to help support this brilliant project at a time when people are really feeling the impact of the cost of living and hope that it can continue to make a real difference in this community.“
David Spence, Vicar of St Peter’s Church, said: “It is really fantastic that LiveWest has supported us to help each other and wonderful to have the fridge in place just before Christmas.”
As there was a need for more support for residents in the town, North Tawton Town Council applied for the grant to LiveWest and this has funded the Community Fridge for Merry Go Round and a Community Freezer at another project with Jen’s Cafe as part of its response to the cost of living crisis.
Sadie Coventry, Volunteer Director and Manager of the Merry Go Round hub, said: “We are delighted to be able to provide this much needed facility to our local community and are very grateful to LiveWest for funding the community fridge and larder.
“We’ve already received a fantastic amount of donations and couldn’t make this happen without the valued support of our local community.
“We’re extremely proud to be helping to reduce food waste and food poverty, in addition to the work we already do to reduce the carbon footprint of the huge range of preloved children’s goods that we sell.“