Fun, free activities as Creggan Country Park celebrates one year of its popular Community Fridge

Between 12noon - 3pm, the celebrations include an inflatable assault course, outdoor games, face painting, nature therapy, a bug hunt, games, messy play in their Nature Hub. recycled art with their artist Sheila and a photo scavenger hunt.

Stalls including their friends at NIRN - Northern Ireland Resources Network, Foyle Foodbank, Zero Waste North West, Northern Ireland Bat Group & you cam find out how you can join their environmental volunteering programme & Moor Environment Forum.

Tasty Reel will also be open for lunch & is fully licenced. It is recommend than anyone attending book a table with them in advance as organisers are expecting it to be very busy.

This will be a free event thanks to funding from Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland

'Creggan Connected' is the community fridge at Creggan Country Park and was officially launched in April 2022. The project was one of only 300 across the UK to secure funding from a pilot programme from the National Lottery Community Fund and IKEA called 'Places called Home.'

A community fridge is a social space that brings people together to connect, learn new skills and reduce food waste.

No registration is required, and food is collected and redistributed on the same day. Visitors can go for a walk, bring along a reusable bag and just take what they want from the fridge and shelves during its opening hours.

Community fridges help tackle climate change at a local level as food waste can produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. In 12 months, the community fridge has saved 5.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide and distributed 1.6 tonnes of surplus food (4021 meals).

The space is used as a base to deliver free environmental events throughout the year including Dawn chorus, Bat Walk, ‘Painting Nature’ classes, Nature Therapy, climate change and biodiversity talks, and planting activities.

A community fridge is not a food bank, instead it aims to bring people together, reduces food waste and takes action to help the planet at a local level.

The wider project also installed a wheelchair friendly picnic bench at the nature hub and buddy bench for children; provides free tea/coffee and comfortable seating area for people to enjoy after their walk around the park. Toys, games & mini library are available for children to enjoy so that parents/guardians can sit and relax with a cuppa. Leaflets and posters of local services will be on display so that local residents know where to go for help in the area - from money worries to healthy eating, they will signpost people to local community groups for help.

Karen Healy, Environmental Officer at Creggan Country Park said: “We have been overwhelmed with the support & interest in our community fridge this past year. We achieved what we set out to do which is to provide a home from home for people to relax, take part in nature themed & cooking workshops and to help tackle climate change locally.

"As stated last year we would again like to say a huge thank you to the six students from St Joseph’s Boys School, our volunteers, and our artist Sheila for helping to create the community fridge space. Looking at the amazing transformation of the space just shows how hard they worked, and they should be very proud. We continue to use the space to raise awareness on climate change and biodiversity issues that affects us all. We would like to thank our funders, The National Lottery Community Fund, IKEA, Department for Communities and Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland for making it all possible. We also want to thank Northern Ireland Resources Network and Foyle Food Bank for their fantastic support over the past year and to council's Environmental Health team for all the help and advice when we were getting our hygiene rating in place."

Eimear Montague, Northern Ireland Resources Network said: “Creggan County Park offers activities which supports the local community as well as promoting environmental projects. Creggan Connected is a fantastic initiative. Since April 2022, the community fridge has prevented over a tonne of food waste and over five tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This helps tackle climate change at a local level, enables food to be shared, improve lives and strengthens the local community. Many congratulations to all involved.”

For opening times and updates visit www.creggancountrypark.com, Creggan Country Park on Facebook, Twitter: @CregganCountry1 or Instagram: @CregganCountryPark18