A NOVEL scheme to help reduce food waste in Bradford on Avon is appealing to local businesses and organisations to become a ‘Friend of the Fridge’.

Local resident, Holly Taylor, has been awarded a £200 grant from the town council to set up a community fridge in a suitable location.

The scheme would enable restaurants, businesses, cafés and members of the public to place food that would otherwise be thrown away in a free, public fridge, for other people to use.

Mrs Taylor, a member of Ideal Bradford, who is also married to Bradford on Avon town councillor Daniel Taylor, said: “The idea has come from Frome Town Council, where this has proved to be a very successful project.

“Edventure Frome, a school for community enterprise, have helped set up similar projects worldwide, with a ‘toolkit’ to make sure that the fridge is safe to use, properly promoted and accessible to as many people as possible.

“We think this is a great way to stop so much waste going to landfill, and to offer unsold, perfectly edible food to anyone who might want or need it.

“The town’s cafés, pubs, restaurants and sandwich shop can place food they would otherwise throw away in the fridge for anyone to take.

“The scheme works really well in Frome where the fridge is seen as belonging to the community, not just to a particular business.

“It’s completely free and open to anyone to use. If we find there’s a problem with food being taken out and thrown around at night, we can always put a time lock on it to prevent this from happening.”

In Frome, the community fridge is managed by a team of volunteers and is located in one of town’s main car parks.

Mrs Taylor is trying to raise funds to buy a new or secondhand fridge, or commercial refrigerator, to store surplus food for community use. She thinks the ideal location is in the St Margaret’s Hall car park, somewhere close to the public toilets.

She added: “The community fridge in Frome gets locked overnight at 9pm with a simple timed electronic lock so I expect we’ll do a similar thing in Bradford on Avon.

“We’d welcome support from any organisations and businesses in town who’d be interested in becoming a ‘Friend of the Fridge’. Please see Ideal Bradford’s Facebook page and get in touch.”