Feeding India launches community plan to place 500 free fridges across neighbourhoods

Zomato

New Delhi, 17th August 2019: Feeding India (FI), is a not-for-profit that has been actively working towards solving for food wastage and hunger in India over the last five years. This August, FI has launched an innovative campaign to involve local communities into its mission. 

Through the ‘Happy Fridge’ program, community fridges are placed by Feeding India, free of cost in residential and commercial complexes. Anyone can put their excess food in the fridge, and people in need can take food from the fridge. So far 47 Happy Fridges have been installed in residential complexes, markets and RWAs, across 19 cities including New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Ranchi, Kanpur and Patna among others. Each of these fridges can serve 1500 – 2000 meals a month. 

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. 

“Through the community fridges, we involve residents to re-distribute consumable healthy food to those in need, thereby reducing food wastage and also creating a dignified means. The residents donate good quality food in the allotted slots of the fridge, which anyone in need can take,”said Srishti Jain, Co-Founder Feeding India  

The high-quality brand-new refrigerators donated by Elanpro can be installed in any area with an electric supply provision. Anyone in India can sign up to place a free Happy Fridge in their locality by simply contacting Feeding India and filling a form. The servicing and repair of the fridge are also taken care of by Feeding India and the corporate partner team. 

“We installed the Happy Fridge in December 2018 and are proud that we are able to help so many people in need. I am responsible for monitoring the fridge and notice that we serve at least 50 meals throughout the day.  In addition to lesser food wastage, the initiative has also led to a more involved community for us,” said Ms. Sheeba, resident Sector 48, Sohna Road, Gurgaon

About Feeding India

Feeding India is not-for-profit working towards solving the problem of hunger and food wastage in the country.  We have a growing network of 22k+ volunteers present across 80+ cities in India and have served 25+ million meals to those in need. 

Our beneficiaries include and are not limited to – children, women, the elderly, the specially-abled and migrant labourers. We currently serve those in need by leveraging our five 5 programs –  1. 24/7 running vehicles which contain refrigeration and insulation systems – that collect and donate surplus food; 2. Mid-day meals to slum schools, 3. Volunteer led initiatives 4. Community fridges and 5. Emergency relief systems. 

In early 2019, Feeding India became a part of Zomato’s CSR foundation and continues to work independently as a not-for-profit, managing our own funds.

·         With a network of 22k+ volunteers present across 80+ cities in India, Feeding India has served 25+ million meals to the underserved over the last 5 years

·         Feeding India has launched a campaign this August to place 500 Happy Fridges free of cost, across India – to make residential and commercial complexes hunger and food-waste free

·         Feeding India became a part of Zomato’s CSR foundation in early 2019, and continues to work independently as a not-for-profit, managing their own funds

Comments

0