Banbury's Community Fridge celebrates first anniversary

The idea for the Community Fridge was proposed last October by Yasmin Kaduji as a way to combat food waste and give back to the community at large.

Food is donated to the Merton Street mosque by the leading supermarket chains and is stored in the fridge, located at the rear of the mosque's car park, for anyone who needs it to use.

Chair of the mosque, Hassan Hanif, said: "Our intention behind this stems from the teachings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) to create an atmosphere of love peace and unity among our community through sharing and caring.

"There are many things that we are told that divide and separate us. The Banbury community fridge is something that unites and connects us and creates a wonderful community spirit.

He added: "Banbury Madni Masjid would like to thank Brady Builders and everyone who has contributed in anyway to make this a success."

The celebration comes two weeks after the fridge was relocated to its new purpose built gazebo by the aforementioned Brady Builders.

In addition to the big supermarkets getting on board with the project the Community Fridge has been endorsed by Sanctuary Housing and Cherwell District Council (CDC).

Charlie Heritage, neighbourhood partnership manager with Sanctuary Housing, said: "A year ago I had only just started my job with Sanctuary, so it's really lovely to come back a year latter and see how the fridge has grown to what it is today.

"We are really proud to work with the mosque on a number of different projects outside of the fridge such as homework club and the food bank and it is a privilege to see how the Mosque has gone from strength to strength.

"It doesn't matter if you want to use the fridge to reduce food going to landfill or because money is a bit tight and having access to free food makes a difference to you, the point is the whole community can use this incredible resource."

Jon Wild, community development manager with CDC, added: "When we look at communities this is just the perfect example of a community coming together."