Love Refrigerator program in Wuhou district feeds poor folks

A sanitation worker gets free instant noodles from the Love Refrigerator. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A number of special refrigerators set up in the Nanhongcun community in Wuhou district – located in Chengdu city, in Southwest China's Sichuan province – have been providing food at no charge to low-income groups for the past five years.

The Love Refrigerator program, launched by the community in March 2017, is a public welfare program that aims to help low-income people by calling on individuals and enterprises to donate surplus food.

Sanitation workers, elderly people living alone, disabled people and other low-income earners can get food from the Love Refrigerator and not pay a penny.

The food sources for the Love Refrigerator include long-term donations from local enterprises and organizations, as well as residents in the community.

"The residents are always very proactive in donating food to the Love Refrigerator," said Tian Qiangping, leader of a resident team in the community.

Two employees from a local company donate instant noodles and mineral water to the Love Refrigerator. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A volunteer team from the West China Medical Center at Sichuan University is the main driving force that provides volunteer services for the Love Refrigerator. Every day after school, students arrive to help receive and register donated food and tidy up the refrigerators.

To ensure the long-term operation of the program, the community established a standardized management process from the start. It strictly records and publicizes the food that is donated to the Love Refrigerator and invites community supervisors and residents to supervise the entire operation, according to community officials.

More than 50 enterprises and 500 individuals have donated food to the Love Refrigerator over the past five years, while over 4,000 people have volunteered to serve the program for a total of more than 4,000 hours.