A new community fridge has been launched in a Co Antrim town to reduce food waste and help those in need.
The Ballycastle Community Fridge was unveiled last week at a special ceremony after it being run from a volunteer's home for six months.
It will be available for anyone in the town to use if they are ever in need of some additional items for lunch or dinner, or even running low on funds and in need of emergency supplies.
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The aim of the fridge is to work with local providers in order to reduce food waste in the area while also helping those in the community and providing them with new ways to cook and use different meals.
Dessie Smyth, who runs the new scheme, said that for the past six months he has been running the fridge from his home and was very pleased that it's now operational at BCW Training in Ballycastle.
He told Belfast Live: "For the past six months I have been working with our local Co-op in order to provide a community fridge scheme here in Ballycastle from my own home.
"The aim of the project is to reduce food waste from our shops and ensure that it is still being used and eaten, with this also allowing us to help anyone in our community who is in need of some food.
"Until our launch on Thursday I had been doing deliveries to people and dropping off whatever items that they needed and we are thrilled that we now have a premises where people can come and pick up things for themselves.
"The fridge is not like a foodbank where people will have to meet certain criteria before they can access the service, it is available to everyone regardless of their need and if we have food available then nobody will ever be turned away."
Dessie said that the official launch of the community fridge was a huge success and showed the level of demand for the service in Ballycastle.
He continued: "We were very pleased to have the new Causeway Coast and Glens Mayor, Ivor Wallace, and our local councillors in attendance for our official opening. They were all very encouraging and supportive of the new scheme.
"We would just like the thank the Co-op for helping us to launch this scheme, along with the Ballycastle Rotary Club and Ballycastle Credit Union for providing sponsorship. We're also very grateful to everyone from the community who supported the Crowdfunder and pledged money to get the fridge up and running.
"We're hoping that the fridge will be the start of a larger community project to develop a community hub in Ballycastle so any money raised going forward will support that project becoming a reality."
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