A Bere Ferrers ward borough councillor has sourced funding for a community fridge which will serve those affected by rural poverty on the Bere peninsula.

Cllr Angela Blackman announced on Tuesday that she had sourced funding for this project, which she began pursuing in January of this year, from West Devon Borough Council’s economic vulnerability fund, allowing her to hold on to her locality budget which is allocated separately to help local residents and groups with various requirements they may have.

The announcement came not three weeks after a formal meeting between Cllr Blackman, headteacher of Bere Alston Primary School headteacher Gareth Bemister, other school staff members and two public health officers working across West Devon Borough and South Hams District Councils, in connection with the councils’ pilot into rural poverty, where each party discussed ideas as to what could be done to help improve the area in an effort to build joint sustainable partnerships.

This pilot was first announced in 2021, whereby council officers were tasked with developing a scheme to tackle rural poverty, which began by scrutinising data and understanding the current provision of services.

Cllr Blackman said: ‘This meeting was broad. We discussed a range of issues, primarily the fridge and then others such as the potential running of free mental health and first aid courses in schools and for youth groups, public transport, anti-social behviour, teaching children fundamental skills such as cooking and the possibility of school uniform upcycling. Staff like Dinah Newman at the school are well versed in this area and are passionate about seeing what can be done to address the issue of rural poverty.’

The new community fridge is set to be located inside the primary school and, as with the peninsula’s food bank, its use will not be dependent on referrals.

Cllr Blackman added: ‘We’re still in the early stages of securing the fridge this week but developments are snowballing rapidly. I know there will be an additional corridor area in the school we can utilise with shelves and cupboards for extra food storage. Securing the fridge through the economic vulnerability fund means I can use my locality budget to fill the fridge. My goal is always to make sure this community can get the very best it can.’

To attain these provisions, Cllr Blackman is currently liaising with FareShare, a charity which coordinates a network of food redistributors throughout the UK, who take surplus food to then give to other charities and community groups, to secure up to 50kg of fresh produce a week, which can be purchased with the remaining funds from her locality budget.