We often wonder “How tough my life is?” But if we look around, there are many people who are facing tougher challenges than us. It is not always about food, shelter or clothing, but also getting the right education to stand on your own feet so that you can offer a helping hand to someone tomorrow. Giving back is not an act, it is a feeling which is beyond words and the biggest reward is the realization that you’ve made a change in someone’s life.
When CEPTES joined the global pledge 1% movement, we had only one thought in our mind, “Let’s try to feed every hungry soul”. There are hundreds of families who go to bed on an empty stomach. Every human deserves food, shelter, and clothing with education & healthcare. So in order to give it back to the community 1% of our time, profit and product, we started an initiative called “Community Fridge“. This initiative is being led by our co-founder Mr. Priyaranjan Panigrahy for CEPTES.
A community fridge is a small initiative which is enabling allies in and around the Indian city of Bengaluru to join hands in order to offer food to poor and needy people. We have placed a public fridge which have opened an avenue for those having surplus food can keep them inside it. This way we can feed them who are unprivileged without hurting their dignity. Needy people can come and get food from this community fridge. This initiative soon caught the eyes of many local residents and nearby restaurants who are now keeping food inside the fridge. Initially, our community fridge was feeding 20-30 people every day, but with time the number of food donors has significantly increased, and our community fridge is serving around 80-100 people every day. Whenever we see someone needy having food from our community fridge, it gives us great motivation and belief that we are really giving it back.
Sometimes the tiniest generous act can ignite change and spread a positive impact in the society by offering a revived sense of hope. A small community fridge which started serving food is now offering free books as well as toys to unprivileged kids. Every month, we conduct an event in our office for all our employees, where each one of them contributes their time in collecting food as well as books, clothes, and toys for our community fridge.
We all want to feel that we added value and had some kind of purpose in our lives. Giving back to the community helps us to feel that we’ve helped to mitigate the challenges in somebody else’s life. The potential for empowering others through giving back is tremendous and something that we all need to consider. In coming months, we are planning to contribute more in our pledge 1% initiatives in the fields of education and healthcare. We are hoping that you are inspired to give and contribute to the community in whichever way you want.
