Cost of living crisis: Peterborough community fridge now feeding more than 200 people a day

A Peterborough community fridge, which helps avoid food heading to landfill, is feeding more people than ever before.

Since September 13, Millfield Community Fridge has been providing food to more than 200 people each day.

It means the community fridge, based at Open Door Baptist Church, in Harris Street, is giving out over half a tonne of food to people in need every day.

Organisers, who started the initiative, expect the demand for food to continue to rise in the coming weeks.

"Last week was our busiest ever and this week has been similar,” Giles Knight, minister of the Open Door Baptist Church, said.

"We’re struggling to keep up with the demand. Most of our food comes from supermarkets, so on Tuesday (September 20), the day after the supermarkets were closed because of The Queen’s funeral, we were low on food and we were concerned that we wouldn’t have enough to go round.

"To be honest, we pray for the food to come in so we can continue to supply the community."

This time last year, the community fridge was supporting 110 people per day.

It is now providing food for an average of 210 people a day – distributing 90 kilos more food on average every day than last year.

The cost of living crisis has led many people to require the services of food banks and community fridges in the region as energy prices and the rate of inflation continue to rise.

More than eight million low-income households will receive £324 this autumn – the second instalment of a cost-of-living payment. The first instalment of £326 was made in July.

"A lot of people have been affected by the cost of living crisis,” Giles said. “People want to save money on their food bill, which is understandable.

"These people don’t know where else to turn. Foodbanks require people to have a referral or vouchers, but because we’re a community fridge and we’re dealing with waste and surplus food we’ll serve anyone who comes – we won’t ask questions. We serve a lot more people for that reason.

“We’ve had to find further sources of food because the supermarkets are giving us less, but the demand has increased.”