The Tavy Fridge — a community fridge project that collects surplus food to give away for free — has celebrated its second anniversary this month with its team of dedicated volunteers.

The fridge was set up in March 2021, with the primary purpose of preventing food waste and instead re-directing it to those in need. Denise Gatley, first assistant at Tavistock Library, recognised the need to bring the fridge to the town and approached LiveWest for help in funding the project.

Having initially provided £1,000 for the fridge itself, which is situated in the foyer of Tavistock Library, LiveWest has also recently provided a further £250 to cover the fridge should it ever break down or need replacing. The library has remained committed to hosting the fridge - paying for electricity, covering insurance and staffing, with the fridge now helping up to 45 people on a daily basis.

A team of 30 volunteers help to run and contribute to the fridge and joined library staff for a party on Sunday afternoon, hosted to say thank you for their continued commitment and all they have done.

Denise said: ‘I’d heard about the Chudleigh fridge and wanted to do it here, I spoke with Alison Knight from LiveWest, then put out an ad through Facebook to say we were looking for people to get together to help run it and we’ve been together ever since.

‘We are hugely grateful to all the local supermarkets, projects and partners involved with their response such as Continental Fruits, Lidl and the Co-Op who have been amazing providing lots of fruit and vegetables, which are great to have in the fridge. It’s re-stocked pretty much every night by our volunteers who do a collection each one night a week from our various providers. ‘