Theresa May joined Muslim and Jewish volunteers cooking a three-course meal for the homeless on the Muslim equivalent of Mitzvah Day.

The Home Secretary was part of a team of 14 cooks preparing food at JW3 in Finchley Road during Sadaqa Day, which is modelled on, and partnered with, Mitzvah Day. The meals were taken to Ashford Place, a homeless charity based in Cricklewood.

Mrs May was "delighted to see first-hand some of the important work that Mitzvah Day and Sadaqa Day are doing. It is all too easy for voluntary work to go unsung but it is exactly initiatives like this that help to build the social fabric of our country.

"All across Britain, communities are doing some extraordinary work and the government is determined to stand with you and support you in your efforts. This event - and hundreds like it around the country - show how coming together can help us create resilient, cohesive communities. By working with each other, we can help to build a stronger Britain."

Also among the cooks was Istar Mohammed, a 17-year-old Muslim volunteer at Hampstead's Royal Free Hospital, who said the event had been "an amazing experience, which I will cherish forever".

Another cookery project at JW3, also benefiting Ashford Place, was led by MP Tulip Siddiq. Young Jews and Muslims cooked and served food for the homeless in Lincoln's Inn Fields, central London.

Mitzvah Day interfaith chair Daniela Pears hailed the Sadaqa Day partnership as "another opportunity to get together through a mutual desire to help those in need around us".

Other Sadaqa Day interfaith projects included a Leeds mosque and the local Sinai Synagogue joining forces to collect and distribute food to the city's poor and needy. South Hampstead Synagogue members and the Somali Bravanese community solicited contributions for the Camden Foodbank. Borehamwood-based charity Goods for Goods hosted an interfaith drive for essentials for refugee camps in Syria and Northern Iraq.

Sadaqa Day founder Julie Siddiqi said: "We have enjoyed great support from our Jewish friends and there were 10 interfaith projects which the Jewish communities in London, Manchester and Leeds helped to organise."