FOOD that would otherwise be heading for the bin will be offered to residents for free in a new community fridge that was unveiled today.

Councillors in Blackbird Leys used part of their ward budgets to get the new fridge, which will be inside the community centre on the estate.

Food inside the fridge, donated by Sainsbury’s in the Westgate Centre, will be free to anybody who needs it.

The idea is that the fridge will be now be run by volunteers who live in Oxford.

They will head to the supermarket every evening to pick up the surplus food, and then go to the community centre to drop it off.

Residents on the estate can then get food out of the fridge when the Blackbird Leys Road building is open from Monday to Friday.

If nobody takes the food by the time it goes off, then it will be thrown away.

Oxford City Council who teamed up with Food for Charities to launch the initiative that they say will stop food waste in the city and reduce hunger.

It comes after a similar scheme was set up by Food for Charities in Botley.

Councillors put some of their ward money towards making the idea a reality.

In a joint statement welcoming the launch of the community fridge, Blackbird Leys councillors Linda Smith and Rae Humberstone and Northfield Brook councillors Hosnieh Djafari Marbini and Sian Taylor said: “We are delighted to have The Leys Community Fridge open.

“We hope that residents really benefit from it and get behind an excellent asset to the community.

“Not only will the community fridge help to support those who may be in need, it is also an important community intervention to reduce needless food waste in our city. Every year in the UK, around 100,000 tonnes of readily available and perfectly edible food is never eaten. This needs to change.”