A Community Fridge will soon be opening in Shepton Mallet.

There are more than 250 Community Fridges across the UK which have been set up with the aim of reducing food waste and bringing communities together. Victoria Ross is one of a group of volunteers who is working on the project in Shepton.

"The idea really came from some chats that were on the Shepton Mallet community groups," she says. "It really is an obvious thing to have in Shepton Mallet, so six or seven of us have got together to organise it."

The first challenge was to find a suitable space, but Haskins has just agreed to allow the fridge to be sited outside its store.

"Now we have a space we can really get the ball rolling," says Victoria. ""We want our Community Fridge to be a similar size to the ones in Frome and Glastonbury – with a fridge, a freezer and a larder for ambient goods.

"It will be in something that is basically a sturdy bike shed. The main things we need are a special fridge and freezer because normal domestic ones aren't designed to withstand freezing outdoor temperatures.

"We have applied for help from Hubbub which co-ordinates the Community Fridge network across the country, and from the Town Council and Spark Somerset. There is definitely funding out there." Once up and running the Community Fridge will be stocked with food donated by Tesco and Aldi that only has a short shelf life remaining. The UK throws away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year, and the aim of Community Fridge is to help cut this figure. Hubbub estimates that its network of fridges redistributes around 7,200 tonnes of surplus food each year ¬– the equivalent to 17.1 million meals. With each fridge sharing an average of 2.4tonnes of food every month. "The Salvation Army run something to help people who don't have enough food, and we don't want to interfere with that," says Victoria. "This is about stopping food going to landfill. It's for anybody and everybody. Of course we hope it will help people who need food, but we also don't want people to think that just because they've gone and done a shop they can't come and grab something from the Fridge as well." Once the Fridge is up and running it will rely on a team of volunteers to help keep it stocked and keep it clean and tidy.

"We need people to commit to giving their time, and that's the challenge," says Victoria. "But it won't be a lot of time. We will need people to volunteer to go and pick up the food and drop it off, do the fridge checks and give it a bit of a wipe over etc – just once a week or every two weeks."

Anyone who would like to get involved should email [email protected]