Zeelandia provides regular
food donations for
The Tiptree Community Food Fridge
As part of Zeelandia’s UK and global CSR strategy, we always seek ways to engage with and support local community projects and initiatives.
The Tiptree Community Hub, which incorporates a community fridge & larder, opened in January 2023, to work with the local community to prevent food waste and to provide surplus food from some of the big food giants.
This not only provides local residents with free fresh produce, but these goods typically reach their sell-by date and would go into landfills if not eaten/used. In eighteen months of operation, they have saved over 60 tons of food from waste.
With no criteria for use and an open-to-all approach, the Hub is run by a growing team of friendly, caring volunteers and has gone from strength to strength, supporting over 500 families and individuals per week.
Partnering with local food businesses like Zeelandia UK, Fareshare & Neighbourly, among others, the community interest company relies on donations, typically consisting of essential food items such as bread, eggs, and canned goods to keep the service running.
After the launch of their community cafe in June 2023, which enabled them to provide food and refreshments, they began to offer other services to support physical and mental health and well-being and prevent loneliness and isolation including new activities such as seated yoga, knit and natter sessions, community litter picking walks, children’s emotional well-being workshops and the new “singing for the brain”dementia group. As well as this, they have a uniform exchange point which provides free school uniforms from all Tiptree schools.
Their work has helped many families and elderly residents struggling during a cost-of-living crisis.
To support this fantastic initiative, the Zeelandia UK team has regularly gathered and donated boxes of mixed food items to deliver to the Fridge alongside some bakery items such as bread and cakes when produced on site.
Emma Bromley, Zeelandia UK HR Manager who has driven the team support, said; “The Tiptree Community Food Hub provides an invaluable service for the families and wider residents of the local community, and by reducing food waste in the process they are also championing sustainability across the industry. We are incredibly proud to support such a fantastic initiative”
Terri Daniels, Director of the Tiptree Community Hub, said; “We are very proud of our achievements but we couldn’t have done this without our fantastic volunteers and the support we have received from Zeelandia and other local businesses.
We are always looking to build our volunteer base so if you’re interested please get in touch tiptreecommunityhub@gmail.com”
