Last year, Kerala – the state that never fails to impress us with the wonderful things they do – opened the Nanma Maram, translating to ‘Tree of Goodness’, a community refrigerator. Located right outside a restaurant in Kochi, this refrigerator is open to everyone all day, every day of the week, and holds food that people have bought for the refrigerator and, more popularly, left-over food from the residents of Kochi’s homes. This initiative is the perfect way of ensuring minimal wastage of food as well as feeding many that would otherwise go hungry. Soon after, Bombay followed suit, first in Versova and then in Oshiwara, and now, it’s Gurgaon’s turn.

If you happen to be in Sector 54 in Gurgaon, you’d see large blue signs pointing to the community fridge, near the gates of Suncity flats. Like its counterparts in Kochi and Bombay, this fridge is accessible to all, 24x7. “This is part of a bigger initiative we are trying to implement in our society. We began waste management and segregating the dry waste that is recyclable. Over 30 families were involved in the initiative. While we were doing that, we thought of also working towards reducing our food waste,” Rahul Khera, one of the minds behind Sharing Shelves, an initiative that aims to reduce food wastage, tells the Hindustan Times.

The residents of Gurgaon have been extremely supportive of the initiative, stocking the fridge daily with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. The people around this sector have also shown interest in opening refrigerators in their own communities. As news about this initiative is spreading across all social media platforms, increasingly garnering support, it’s only a matter of time that more cities across the country do the same.