HONG KONG (AP) – Most people heading to Woosung Street in Hong Kong’s old school district visit its popular curry-to-seafood restaurants. Others may turn to a lonely refrigerator, painted blue, with a sign that reads, “Give what you can give, take what you have to take.”
The refrigerator door in front of a hockey academy opens to reveal that it is filled with packets of instant noodles, biscuits, food boxes and even socks and towels for anyone who might need them.
Ahmen Khan, the founder of a sports foundation on the same street, said he was inspired to create a community refrigerator after seeing a movie about others doing the same thing. He found the refrigerator at a nearby garbage collection point and painted it blue.
“It’s like a dignity, that when you go home, you open your fridge to get food,” Khan said. “So I want people to feel that way. Even if it’s a street, it’s their community, it’s their home, so they can just open it and then put food there and collect food. ”
Khan’s blue fridge project went viral on social media and people came by to leave food inside.
Janet Yeung recently stopped with a plastic bag full of cookies, instant noodles and snacks. He carefully stacked them inside.
“I don’t think good deeds need to be done on a large scale,” Yeung said. “A small act can already show our goodness and contribute to this world.”
A resident who would only identify as Yeung (has no relationship with Janet Yeung) is one of the people who benefits from the blue refrigerator, helping himself from time to time to eat some food or even masks left by donors.
“Those who really need it can take things out of the fridge whenever they want without worries, because the fridge is here 24 hours a day,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Zen Soo contributed to this report.
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“One Good Thing” is a series that highlights flashes of joy in difficult times – stories about people who find a way to make a difference, no matter how small. Read the collection at https://apnews.com/hub/one-good-thing