Public fridges stocked for needy

DUBAI: More than 150 fridges stocked with free food for those in need have become a city-wide phenomenon after a lone activist started with a single unit during last year’s month of Ramadaan.

The Ramadaan Sharing Fridge initiative was the idea of Australian Sumayyah Sayed, who left the first fridge outside her house and stocked it with food and drinks for the city’s poor.

About 25 000 members of the public donated to the scheme, helping to boost the numbers of fridges this year, with about 400 people making use of the service each day at one fridge alone, organisers said.

“Every day we have 10 to 15 donors who come individually on their own and they give us some dry items, Labans (milk), they give us biscuits, fruit and juices.

“So we make packs of these individually and we hand it over,” fridge manager Swathi Santhosh said.

The fridges around the city are marked on a digital map and promoted on social media channels. – Reuters