PROJECT-SUPPORT SWITZERLAND

Association Madame Frigo, Lucerne, Switzerland

Country / Locations

Switzerland, over 130 location
https://www.madamefrigo.ch/en/towns/

General

Madame Frigo is a non-profit organisation based in Lucerne that has been committed to combating food waste in Switzerland since 2018. Madame Frigo provides a practical platform for reducing food waste throughout Switzerland in the form of public refrigerators. The fridges are open around the clock and can be accessed anonymously and free of charge by anyone. They are managed by teams of volunteers within cities, municipalities, or neighbourhoods, which strengthens local communities, voluntary work, and solidarity with one another.

Beneficiaries

Every year, Swiss private households throw away around 800’000 tonnes of food that is still edible. With its public refrigerators, Madame Frigo provides a practical immediate measure for exchanging leftover food and sensitises the Swiss population to the responsible use of our resources through a variety of events.

The fridges, which now number over 130, are each the result of an initiative by interested people and are looked after by these volunteers. The concept is simple: "Bring what you no longer need yourself and get what's missing at home". This is a direct contribution to sustainably reducing food waste in Switzerland.

Thanks to the support of over 500 helpers who volunteer around 25’000 hours a year, more than 200 tonnes of food can be saved from premature disposal every year.  

Project-support

Project: Establishment phase Madame Frigo 2024 & 2025

All activities relating to the planning and organisation of new fridge locations, volunteer support, the design and implementation of awareness-raising measures, and administrative tasks are pooled at the office in Lucerne.

A new Madame Frigo location is created wherever there is a demand from the population for the organisation. This demand is currently increasing year after year and the volunteer network is expanding rapidly. In 2024 and 2025, the aim is to establish 50 more locations, further improve volunteer support, develop awareness-raising measures, and be represented in 18 cantons and in all language regions of Switzerland by the end of 2025.

The constant demand for new locations demonstrates the value of the work and the need for concrete options for action in the area of food waste prevention on a daily basis. On the other hand, supporting more and more locations and volunteers also requires time and human resources. This makes it necessary to optimise structures and processes in order to ensure good long-term support and use of the locations.