Hassan Riaz: Halifax Community Fridge is a lifeline in this current crisis

We have up to 90 families visiting us at the fridge. We open daily from 11am-12.30pm. Families are often queuing 9am onwards, whatever the weather. The concept is simple: reduce the amount of food wastage, and provide fresh, quality surplus food to anyone in need. The impact has been staggering. We estimate we have saved over 400,000kg of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere as a direct result of working alongside all the towns local supermarkets.

We’re open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. At the fridge, we are all volunteers, dedicating our days and nights in ensuring no one has to go to sleep hungry here in Calderdale. But we’re more than that, and as the people who benefit from the fridge will tell you, we are a lifeline in this current crisis.

We recently launched The Jilani Kitchen from the fridge, and since its launch in November 2022, we have provided over 500 warm meals. This continues every Thursday, 30 minutes before sunset, all year round.

Seventy six women have benefitted from our ongoing sanitary package campaign. Local women have anonymously been able to collect parcels ensuring their hygiene needs are met. We’ve also distributed over 320 winter coats to local people, in the last few months. Our winter coat campaign, is helping keep our community warm.

In Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, we have handed out over 3,000 meals. This has been part of our yearly Ramadan Food Box, reaching needy families struggling to break their fast since covid-19. Alongside this, we have facilitated the distribution of over £30,000 to local families, in local Zakah. Zakah is obligatory upon every Muslim, once their savings surpass a threshold amount. Zakah entails 2.5% each year of an individual's savings, and since covid-19, many people have decided to give this locally.

Our Little Free Library has now facilitated 1000’s of free books to go to local families, helping increase literacy in families residing in Park Ward. The most impoverished of wards here in Calderdale. We have also done 24 monthly Big Mosque Street Cleans, helping promote a cleaner and greener area.

That’s a snapshot, of how we have supported the town and townspeople through covid-19 and cost-of-living crisis. All of this, inspired by the words of the Prophet of Islam, who said: “O Mankind, spread peace and feed people.”