Community Fridge has ‘Tesco and Aldi’ in its sights

An initiative to provide free food to Welshpool residents in need every single day is proving popular, but the people behind it are hoping that Tesco and Aldi will come on board to also support.

Since its February launch, the Community Fridge at the Town Hall has already provided 90kg of food to residents that would have otherwise ended up in landfill.

It works by a number of the town’s outlets making food available at the end of the day that would have been thrown out. It is collected by volunteers and then placed in the Town Hall location. It has also received a 5-star food hygiene rating – the highest available.

But at last night’s Town Council Operations and Development Committee meeting it was revealed that two of the town’s biggest food outlets are still not supporting it. And there is also a shortage of volunteers.

“We have six or seven volunteers so we are doing a recruitment drive through social media,” said Town Clerk, Richard Williams. “We are also working hard to get Tesco and Aldi on board who have committed, but are awaiting head office approval. We are also targeting a few more town centre businesses.”

The initiative was launched following a £5,000 grant from Powys County Council that was secured by Cllr Richard Church.