Clewer and Dedworth’s Driven Forward has been awarded £3,000 funding from Abri to support their community fridge.
The Driven Forward Community Fridge project is run in conjunction with the Hubbub Foundation. It is a non-profit charity project that aims to redistribute surplus food to the general community that would otherwise become food waste. It aims to relieve pressures on household food budgets. It will also provide a community area that fosters sharing and collaboration, reduce local business food waste, and raise public awareness around this food issue. The funding from Abri will support the ongoing sustainment of the community fridge.
Tila Stephens, from Driven Forward, said: “The funding has made a big difference to the charity as the numbers of adults and families accessing the food from the community fridge has been steadily increasing, so much so that we’ve extended opening hours and will be opening on Saturdays to meet the increased demand.
“We will be able to help more families and also prevent food waste at the same time. We have increased our volunteers and we are able to support adults in the community and provide volunteering opportunities; we have people accessing the fridge who appreciate the help with providing food for their families and who want to ‘give back’ and volunteer their time to help.”
The Community Fund is part of Abri’s commitment to empowering lives and creating thriving communities, making them better places to live. Abri is one of the south of England’s largest housing providers and has awarded over £40,000 from its Community Fund to support local organisations and projects since April 2021.
Applications are decided on by its customer panel – Thriving Communities – made up of customers and those living in its communities. The panel said: “The thought, organisation, and effort behind this project is excellent. Tila herself is a long time Abri resident and is very integrated in the community. Her aim with the Community Fridge is to help supplement people who might need food and also reduce food wastage by encouraging anyone to come along and take donated fresh food. They have such a volume from local supermarkets they then pass what’s leftover along to other local charities.
“They have moved to a new premise which is largely the cost that we have supported. It’s on the doorstep for many people in central Windsor (and also our Abri residents). It’s a great project.”
It’s all about building a community and improving health and wellbeing. Tila added: “Abri customers are posting on the Facebook page what they have cooked with the food that they have picked up, and they are trying lots of new fresh fruit and vegetables that they may have never tried before. As a result, they are eating a lot healthier and are cooking and eating more nutritionally healthy food for themselves and their families.”
Other successful applications to Abri’s Community Fund include:
- St Peters Community Centre, in Yeovil, received £3,000 to support their food pantry and set up toddler activity sessions.
- Coach4u received £1,500 to hold summer events for 100 children aged 5-11 in Mansbridge.
- Buzz Action Foundation received £3,000 to provide youth club activities at the Bowman Centre in Amesbury, giving young, socially isolated people alternative opportunities for socialising and discharging physical energy.
- Marvels and Meltdowns in Gosport, received £1,500, to improve health and safety measures in their new centre. They are a long-established group in Gosport supporting families of children on the autistic spectrum.
“We believe the best ideas often come from the people who know and lie in our communities. And we’re committed to supporting and investing in our communities. We’re proud of the difference our Community Fund makes, driving change, transforming our communities and providing opportunities. It’s what our Community Strategy and five-year £15m investment is all about – empowering communities, improving health and wellbeing, and providing employment opportunities,” says Cita Jagot, Communities & Involvement Manager at Abri.
Abri’s Community Fund opens for applications three times a year, and organisations can apply for up to £3,000 to support a project in one of Abri’s communities. The next application window opens on 1 December 2020 and closes on 9 February 2022.
You can find out more about Driven Forward at www.drivenforward.co.uk/
