Happy Fridge — communities caring for their own
By Rushi Vyas
This post was originally published on July 05, 2019.
I remember as a child, whenever I was hungry, the first thing I did was open the fridge or ask my mother to cook. She always made me a delicious meal. It was truly a happy feeling and many of us might still have moments like these. But there are communities that can’t even afford the food that goes into it, let alone a refrigerator.
Feeding India wanted to create similar moments for the less privileged section of the society and developed the Happy Fridge program. We started the project on 16th of October 2018 with the objective of collecting excess nutritious food from public/residential complexes and redistributing it to the beneficiaries under the campaign #FightFoodWaste.
According to the 2011 Census there are 139 million internal migrants in India. Most of these migrants work as blue-collar workers, and domestic help within large communities in the cities. As a solution to providing them access to food, without hurting their dignity — the team at Feeding India came up with the concept of the ‘Happy Fridge’. This smart solution ensures that those who are in desperate need of food have immediate anonymous access via community participation.
These are community fridges, open to everyone to place food they wish to donate along with a sample label for the beneficiaries. Happy Fridge is working in various cities including Delhi, Patna, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Bangalore and is continuously expanding. Each Happy Fridge provides around 1500 to 2000 meals a month, which helps people who are in need of food, thus making an impact. We’re looking to further expand into residential societies, hospitals, temples and Gurudwara and committed to install five hundred Happy Fridges in hundred cities across India in the next six months.
Many of our fridges are filled with excess food that would have gone to the trash can otherwise. Next time when you are about to throw something away, stop for a minute and think about the number of people it might benefit. There are people sleeping on an empty stomach while we hold the privilege to throw food away. In developed countries, there are goodwill centres where people can donate food and clothing to the less privileged communities of the nation, this is our moment to take a step forward towards the development of India.
To make your community food wastage and hunger-free, sign up for a Happy Fridge now! All you need is an electricity point, a location that needs a fridge, and of course locals committed to helping people within their communities by sharing safe consumable food.
