Community Fridges

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About Greener Orkney’s Community Fridges

What are Community Fridges?

Community Fridges are a platform for sharing surplus food within a community to reduce the amount of food entering waste streams. There are over 100 community fridges across the UK with each fridge sharing one to four tonnes of food per month. Each year these community fridges redistribute 975 tonnes of food surplus (equivalent to 1.9 million meals) and benefit up to 77,500 people. Greener Orkney’s two Community Fridges are part of the national Community Fridge Network.

How do Community Fridges work?

The idea behind a Community Fridge is simple – any available items can be taken by anyone. As well as food sharing and food waste reduction, Community Fridges give people opportunities to contribute through volunteering, learning new skills and sharing their existing skills.

Greener Orkney’s involvement

Greener Orkney was pleased to join a project launched by the Co-Op and Hubbub which aimed to redistribute 6.8 million meals a year. We were awarded a grant by the Co-Op of £4,000 towards the initial setup costs of the first Community Fridge, in Kirkwall. This was followed by a second Fridge, in Stromness.  We also operated a third Fridge in Dounby between 2022 and 2023, located within the Community School.

When and where are the Community Fridges?

DayKirkwall Community Fridge

26 Bridge Street
Kirkwall
KW15 1HR
Stromness Community Fridge

116 Victoria Street
Stromness
KW16 3BU

Monday
8:30pm – 9:00pm8:30pm – 9:00pm

Tuesday
12:00pm – 2:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm		8:30pm – 9:00pm
Wednesday8:30pm – 9:00pm12:00midday – 1:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm
Thursday12:00midday – 1:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm		12:00midday – 1:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm
Friday8:30pm – 9:00pm12:00midday – 1:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm
Saturday12:00midday – 2:00pm12:00midday – 1:00pm

8:30pm – 9:00pm

Sunday

Closed

8:30pm – 9:00pm

For the latest information about what food is available, or last-minute changes to opening times, please check the dedicated Community Fridge Facebook page which is regularly updated by our volunteers.

Greener Orkney Community Fridges’ impact

We have over 30 active volunteers who open and close the Community Fridges, collect food from suppliers and ensure the cleanliness of the Community Fridge environment.

2022-2025
Total amount of food collected by the Community Fridges:		100,663kg239,673 equivalent meals

MonthLocationFood collected (kg)Monthly visitorsCumulative food (kg)
December 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		2355.6
974.9		548
375		65559.3
33993.8
November 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1931.6
496.8		593
389		63203.7
33018.9
October 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1722.5
747.6		653
444		61272.1
32522.1
September 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1126.2
347.2		475
376		59549.6
31774.5
August 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1353.4
658.3		467
398		58423.4
31427.3
July 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,779
449		470
381		57,070
30,769
June 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		994 * estimate
378		509
417		55,291
30,320
May 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,965
557		556
508		54,297
29,942
April 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,300
404		469
433		52,332
29,385
March 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,294
1,060		429
515		51,032
28,981
February 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,058
781		465
499		49,738
27,921
January 2025Kirkwall
Stromness		1,792
1,165		474
446		48,680
27,140
December 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,767
622		439
351		46,888
25,975
November 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,264
960		466
500		45,121
25,354
October 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,257
987		470
607		43,857
24,394
September 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,211
807		438
434		42,600
23,407
August 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,166
716		515
431		41,389
22,600
July 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,317
952		489
463		40,223
21,884
June 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		2,157
675
413
375		38,906
20,932
May 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,221
1,309		446
483		36,749
20,256
April 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		 1,499
1,086
529
425		35,529
18,948
March 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,714
1,089		467
454		34,029
17,862
February 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,168
802
369
299
32,315
16,772
January 2024Kirkwall
Stromness		1,539
1,110
360
339
31,147
15,971
December 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,776
727
424
268
29,608
14,861
November 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,142
557
392
239
27,832
14.134
October 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,622
1,533
401
268
26,691
13,577
September 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,575
727
383
231		25,069
12,044
August 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,575
709		430
277		23,493
11,317
July 2023Kirkwall
Stromness		1,556
774		384
317		21,918
10,608
June 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		1,396
866
Closed		348
291		20,362
9,834
1,111
May 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		1,491
713
34		403
315
7		18,967
8,968
1,111
April 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		2,600
841
52		398
264
5		17,476
8,255
1,077
March 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		884
496
168
434
269
115		14,876
7,414
1,025
February 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		1,431
507
116		525
289
93		13,993
6,918
857
January 2023Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		1,571
972
139		543
367
97		12,561
5,549
741
December 2022Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		 1,558
1,463
244		 566
326
102 		10,991
5,439
603
November 2022Kirkwall
Stromness
Dounby		1,657
1,016
359		569
414
222		9,432
3,976
359
October 2022Kirkwall
Stromness		975
564		465
350		7,775
2,959
September 2022Kirkwall
Stromness		636
1,096		424
396		6,801
2,396
August 2022Kirkwall
Stromness		958
985		486
408		6,165
1,300
July 2022Kirkwall
Stromness		1,345
315		575
56		5,207
315
June 2022Kirkwall1,3505243,862
May 2022Kirkwall1,1144722,513
April 2022Kirkwall7763761,398
March 2022Kirkwall622160622

Contact Greener Orkney Community Fridges

Visit: www.facebook.com/greenerorkneycommunityfridge

Email: communityfridges@greenerorkney.org.uk

Our supporters

We are extremely grateful to the following organisations for their support of the Community Fridges: