Fridge to bridge the gap between poor’s hunger and food

An exceptional act always catches the eye. As Mangaluru marches towards the tag of Smart city, creative minds also have found their way to serve the society, poor and needy. To feed the poor is a noble task one can do and a businessman has found a smart way to do that. Arafath Ameen, owner of a chain of cyber cafés in city is by placing a “public fridge” in front of his cyber café near KMC.

Inspired by the school projects done by children based on the concepts of nature, hunger, population, poverty, wastage of food etc., he took up this unique initiative. Arafath Ameen spoke exclusively to Newskarnataka’s Joel Pinto about his noble gesture.

How did the projects that you helped children with, inspire you to take such a creative initiative?

As we surf the internet for project pictures, we find pictures of food getting wasted and people dying of hunger. There is also wastage of food in our own houses. How can these poor people be helped? How can our excess food be made available to the poor? These were some questions revolving in my mind. We often keep the excess food in the fridge so that it’s not wasted. All these observations evolved into ideas and gave birth to this unique concept.”

What are the challenges you faced while taking this initiative?

A fridge in a public place so that the needy have easy access to satisfy their hunger was the main task. Initially I could not find a refrigerator that suited this purpose and due to the effect of demonetisation also the initiative took a setback. But I didn’t lose heart and kept working towards implementing this initiative.

How do you fill the fridge with food items?

I deposit food in the refrigerator, and many other locals also come and donate food including fruits so that it reaches the needy. We also keep soft drinks and drinking water. We welcome volunteers to deposit food in the fridge so that it can reach the poor.

How is the response to this initiative?

People are coming forward to help and a lot of poor people are being fed thus. However, some who are financially sound enough are trying to misuse the gesture. The donors believe that we have sufficient food and we should share what we have. All the activities are monitored with a CCTV camera. This is just on a trial basis for 6 months and in future I will open one more fridge near my other cyber café as well if the initiative is not misused. If 80 percent of the food reaches the needy, I don’t mind 20 percent going to others.

What is your message to our readers?

This initiative can be taken up by any one. There are a lot of poor people in many places and also those who are well off. The latter can always afford to help the former in whatever little way possible. I can’t go everywhere and open fridges like these, but a lot of people can. Only thing that is required is some good will and motivation.

Motivation finds only those who wish to be motivated. Once you are motivated our duty is to pass it on. Service can be done by all, but the motivation that we need is given by people like Arafath Ameen. Let this good work inspire more people to serve the society in a more creative and bountiful way.

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