The Sharing Shed

Have you heard about the Sharing Shed?

If not then you will be hearing a lot more about it very soon! One of the very first projects we devised was to have a Community Fridge in Thurso to help tackle the issue of otherwise good food being wasted and going to landfill. Joan and Marion went along and secured £1,000 funding at the Your Cash, Your Caithness event in February 2019 and a crowdfunder added another £500 to the pot. But having a Community Fridge came to be hard work in getting it on track. We struggled to find someone willing to build the shed and had some setbacks over the location of the Community Fridge. We’ve also been so busy over the past 18 months even before Covid-19 with Discover Thurso, consultation, Thurso Grows and all of the other projects that we run including securing a Community Hub, the Fridge project went on the back burner.

Covid-19 changed that. We were able to in a way get back to basics in really identifying what the community needs and needs right now. Plus like everyone we were re-evaluating the way that we live. In these days of a climate emergency and worldwide pandemic to have otherwise good food going to waste is just honestly unacceptable.

So the idea of a Community Fridge got some oomph under it. We’ve worked very closely with Thurso Youth Club over the past six months. Their building where our office is based became a hub for our meals and getting items out to community members. We also inadvertently now had a shed! Originally for us to store bikes in for getting back and forth to the Community Garden our shed became home to volunteer equipment enabling volunteers to pick up hand sanitiser and other pieces of equipment needed to support the community. As that support has tailed down we realised we could put in a temporary fix to share food while we finally got a permanent solution to the Community Fridge underway. We also at this point now had a fridge, we had to purchase one to help with the Community Meals so why not put it to a permanent use.

The idea of the Sharing Shed then came about, it wasn’t just about food. It was about Sharing lots of other items. Over the past few weeks in its temporary home we have shared books, toiletries, food and craft items. The permanent large shed is now on order and once it arrives we will be arranging an electrical connection, all the health and safety needed and also installing now not only a fridge but a freezer as well! We are receiving surplus food donations from CFINE who distribute surplus throughout the Highlands and once the fridge and freezer are in place will be able to share other items such as vegetables from our Garden and surplus bakery goods from the supermarket.

Remember years ago (or ask your Granny/Grandad) if you were short of a bit of sugar or a cup of milk, you would borrow from your neighbour and they would borrow back from you. Doing some baking? Share it with the neighbours. That’s what the Sharing Shed is - an opportunity to share food rather than it going to waste. It’s for everyone in the community to use. Open from around 10am - 7pm from Monday to Friday and helps us as a community take action against climate change by sharing instead of wasting food.

We can’t wait to open the permanent shed and hope to have it in place in October with a very grand opening ceremony with two very special guests to the Trust so watch this space!