Every day we come across food wastage and hungry people at the same time. What if there was a place where the remaining food could be used to feed the needy. The public fridge helps in doing so.
The fridge seems like a cool way to ensure that the poor don’t go to sleep on an empty stomach.
The fridge will not only help households donate food but also hotels, restaurants and events where large quantities of food are produced and often wasted.
Donors can pack their food and keep it in the refrigerator. A hungry person can enjoy the food if he wants to. Cooked food, vegetables and packed foods which are not stale or expired can be placed in the fridge. The packed food should have a label providing information such as the name of the cuisine, the time it was cooked and the probably time it can go stale.
Many places have started installing public fridges or community fridges.
The Public Fridge
In Bengaluru, A Chennai-based Public Foundation installed a public refrigerator in BTM opposite to SMC marriage hall. The place of the fridge is in a residential area and near party halls. So waste of food in parties held at those halls can be avoided by placing the remaining food in the public fridge.
Public fridges have also been set up in Mumbai and Kochi by different groups. Separate shelves are also placed beside the fridge in which donors can keep their old clothes, stationaries and other things.
Community Fridge
A similar project in Dorking was started to save food from being thrown away. The food was collected and distributed to those in need or kept in a community fridge. This prevented almost 10 tonnes of waste in its first nine months.
The Dorking Community Fridge, established in September 2017, collects unwanted food from supermarkets before offering it to the general public for free.
Installing more refrigerators for the public and restaurants would certainly encourage more people to donate their remaining food. This would allow hungry people to pick it up for free and reduce food wastage.