Yasmin Kaduji joined club members at the Friday Lunchtime Zoom Meeting last month to give a short talk about the Banbury Community Fridge. She explained that it is situated at the Mosque on Merton Street in Grimsbury.
It began when members of the Mosque community contacted Tesco to discuss how they could help address the issue of food waste from supermarkets. A partnership with Tesco began and Banbury Community Fridge was born. Since then links have been established with the Food Bank and the CAB. A Hygiene bank was also set up through a link with the Post Office.
Once the Pandemic resulted in lockdown the Community Fridge had to close. As people were no longer able to collect food, the organisers began creating food parcels and delivering these to people in need. At the height of the pandemic they were delivering 400 parcels a week. Once government food parcels were issued, the Fridge volunteers linked with the kitchen staff at Tudor Hall to support local Food Banks.
The work of the Community Fridge, alongside a number of other voluntary groups, to support our local community was recognised by a letter from the Queen and celebrated through reports in local media. To discover more about the Fridge visit their Facebook Page.
Yasmin’s enthusiasm for the cause shone through her talk. What struck me as rather lovely was Yasmin’s Facebook post in response to the recognition by the Queen: “Wow” Wasn’t expecting that!”
Speaker Report by Fred Riches