Community Fridges Help to Feed the Poor
Community fridges, maintained by voluntary organisations, take care of the hungry while engendering a healthy respect for food conservation.
In India, 68,760,163 tonnes of food is wasted every year. This comes up to around 50kg of food wastage per person, in one year. During the lockdown many people suffered from hunger as they had so much money to buy food. The Public Foundation is an NGO which came up with an unique idea to help people. TPF has set up “Community Fridge” is very similar to a normal fridge we have in our homes. These fridges are bigger, and are placed in public places. They have no lock on them. Anyone can come and donate by keeping food in that fridge. The poor, or any hungry person, can open the fridge and take what they want to eat. TPF had 8 community fridges in Chennai, and 2 in Bengaluru. These fridges were stocked with freshly cooked food, beverages & other snacks etc.
Dr Issa Fathima Jasmine is the managing trustee at The Public Foundation (TPF). She said India has a lot of food, However a lot of it is wasted. We need to remember that every grain is a symbol of god’s grace, and the extra food that we have, should not be wasted. We should learn to share it. The TPF also has the approval of the Greater Chennai Corporation, which is the municipal authority of Chennai. There is a similar initiative in Mumbai. The Don Bosco Institutions (DBI) in association with the NGO “Team Spreading Smiles”, have installed community fridges at Nerul, Seawoods, Navi Mumbai etc. They have helped at least 25,000 poor people and migrant workers who have lost their sources of income because of the pandemic.
