King's College London

King’s community fridge aims to address the cost-of-living crisis and reduce food waste. Piloted by King's Student Experience team, the project saves food left over from events, along with other dry goods, and makes them available to students for free.

How does the community fridge work?

The team has installed a community fridge in Bush House (South East Wing), where food left over from student experience events held on campus and other dry goods are made available for King’s students.

Two ‘Fridge Champions’ have been recruited to help with maintaining the fridge, organising events to promote the fridge, highlighting the issues it seeks to address, and evaluating its impact to ensure it is sustainable.

Aims of the community fridge

The community fridge project aims to:

• Support students' basic needs during the cost of living crisis by providing free food and employment opportunities.
• Reduce food waste on campus and encourage event hosts to consider environmental impacts when ordering catering.
• Foster a sense of community and ownership for students who use the fridge, attend events, and promote and organise the project.
• Improve overall student wellbeing to promote a positive educational experience.

How will we assess the impact of the community fridge?

To assess the impact of the community fridge on King’s students, we request feedback from those who use the fridge through a survey.

The survey assesses:

• General experience at King’s: Measured using the ‘Settling at King’s’ questions.
• Perceived cost-of-living support: Measured through questions created by the BE At King’s team.
• Engagement: Measured with a three-item scale developed by the BE At King’s team to gauge participants' general level of engagement.

The collected data will be analysed to:

• Evaluate the overall impact of the fridge on belonging, wellbeing and cost-of-living stress.
• Determine if those engaging with the fridge are generally highly engaged, and if we are reaching individuals with lower engagement levels.
• Compare the impact of the fridge across different groups (e.g. faculty, international vs home students, commuters, etc.).

Get involved with the community fridge

We are looking for staff volunteers to support with the daily maintenance of the fridge, such as cleaning and taking stock. If you would like to contribute, email us at mt-cf-strand@kcl.ac.uk.

Find out more and get in touch

The Community Fridge project is led by Niamh Carey and Maya Boustany.

Want to find out more about this initiative or find out how we can help you with your own? Get in touch with BE At King's at beatkings@kcl.ac.uk.