The Community Fridge has arrived in Smethwick, helping save food waste and helping those in need too.

Express & Star

Dorothy Parkes Centre in Smethwick now has a community fridge, the first one in the area. We went along to find out more.

Transcript

00:00Here at Dorothy Park Centre in Smebic and we're with the lovely Christina.

00:04Hello. Hiya. Hiya. What are we doing here today Christina? There's a big lovely, what looks quite

00:10a new fridge over your shoulder. What's going on here? Yesterday we launched our new community

00:14fridge. It's called Dottie's Community Fridge. It's available to everybody and anybody, regardless

00:21of your financial situation or where you live. The main aim of the fridge is to reduce food waste.

00:27So we want to put food in bellies, not bins. We're in contact with an amazing project down

00:33in Winsome Green which is called Incredible Surplus. So they've supplied a lot of the food

00:38that you can see here today. We've also got contacts with Neighbourly. We've got an amazing

00:44award-winning community allotment which is down in Bearwood on Dale Street. So all of the fresh

00:49produce is produced at our own allotment. We grow it there. All organic. Reducing food miles as well.

00:58So is this for people that are coming in and using the centre or are you kind of welcoming

01:03people from the community around to venture in for the first time even?

01:08Yeah absolutely. We're more than happy to have new people come into the centre.

01:12It's available to people that currently use the centre or if there's any new people

01:16that have heard about the fridge, they want to access it, they're more than welcome to come in.

01:21We're hoping to give a minimum of three items but because it is surplus food we can't always guarantee.

01:27Sometimes you might get more food, sometimes it might be a bit less. People are also welcome to

01:33donate to the fridge as well. So if you're at home and you've got some meals that you know you're not

01:37going to eat before the best before date, you're welcome to come. Drop them off and we'll share

01:42them with the community via the fridge. So what percentage of this project is about

01:50food ending up in bellies rather than bins and what percentage of it is about helping

01:55people that are on that breadline and struggling? Is it a 50-50 on that? Yeah 50-50 really.

02:00It's just about sharing what we've got, bringing people together, reducing food waste and just

02:05supporting each other. Awesome. Who supplied the fridge? Did you manage to get a grant?

02:11Funding from Hubbub and we received funding from the Heart of England.

02:15So what's your official title here then Christina? Projects Manager. Fantastic. And I was going to

02:20say Dottie's Fridge, where's the name come from? But of course it's because Dorothy Parks isn't it?

02:24Absolutely yeah. Then Dorothy Parks, who was Dorothy Parks? So Dorothy, I know gosh,

02:31we've actually got a picture of Dorothy on the wall there. Yeah. So she was a local lady that

02:36left her legacy to the local area for the local community so that they built the community centre

02:44and the connection with Smedwick Old Church just across the road. So very fitting that the fridge

02:49is named after her isn't it really? Yeah totally. So what we've got, milk in there, juices? Yeah

02:56we've got the fresh food from the allotment, we've got some beautiful cheeses. I mean yesterday when

03:02we had it open because it's obviously been used now. So yesterday we had a huge amount of lamb

03:07chops, loads of lovely french ham, meatballs, some ready meals, lots of curries. We've got some

03:16fresh meats down there and like you say juices, milk, butter, yoghurts. Awesome and is that,

03:21we've got a freezer involved as well? So there's frozen food as well? We've got a local convenience

03:26store that donates. So we've got lots of fresh bread. And that's all the stuff that other,

03:33because it's close to that date? Yeah absolutely. So if we hadn't have got this, some of this might

03:38have ended up in bins or landfill. We were able to rescue the food and share it with the community.

03:43What's the local convenience store, are they remaining anonymous? No no it's Carl's Convenience.

03:48Well done Carl's Convenience. Yeah fantastic. Well fantastic project. I've not come across a

03:52community feature before, so it's a new one on me. It's the first one of its kind in this area.

03:59Definitely, well well done Christina. Thank you.

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