Community ‘Fridges’ that feed the hungry, needy people

Bengaluru: How often we tend to throw away cooked food when our guests don’t turn up as we hope so, or maybe it is that just one time where we have cooked good food that was more than enough and became stale another day.

In order to beat this odd feeling when we get while starring at the amount of food that has gotten waste, Issa Fathima Jasmine from Bengaluru started this amazing initiative that provides free food in public places, TOI reported

The poor and the needy can now eat food from the installed public fridges which have been set-up by the community at BTM layout, Brookfields, Indiarinagar, Koramangala and Benson Town.

Several NGOs have also helped in setting up these public fridges which now feeds as many as 400 hungry people.

Issa Fathima Jasmine is the managing trustee of Public Foundation which opened the public fridge at BTM Layout in November last. Speaking of her initiative, Ms Jasmine said: “The BTM Layout fridge alone feeds 70-100 people a day from 7am to 9pm. Anyone wanting to give away homemade food just needs to pack it neatly and keep it in the fridge. People who are hungry can open the fridge and have it.”

Ms. Jasmine used to give the extra food cooked at home to one of her neighbour who had to move out leaving Jasmine with no clue of what she should do now. She, in fact, drove around the city searching for the needy hungry people to feed to.

“Sometimes, I would give food to the hungry and sometimes I’d bump into people who didn’t need it. I then decided the only way to resolve this was to install a fridge so that anyone could eat the food kept in it,” says Jasmine.

“The idea of a community fridge is to provide a platform for leftover food or eatables that people wish to donate to the less fortunate, but without hurting their dignity,” she says.

The idea soon got implemented by many residents and restaurant owners who did want to lend a hand helping the needy. A Lebanese restaurant in Indiranagar has set up a community fridge outside the restaurant which now feeds at least 20 people daily.

“We keep the same food that’s cooked for the staff which is fresh. It’s not leftovers,” said Nilesh Bansode, manager of Byblos.

Another restaurant that has implemented the same idea is a restaurant by the name Carrots in Koramangala which has set up a community fridge that feeds 30-40 people from morning to evening. “The food kept in the fridge gets consumed within an hour. Most of the time, our customers keep their extra food in the fridge,” said Amir Thapa, captain of the restaurant.