Solidarity Feeding

In Argentina and elsewhere, refrigerators are popping up on the sidewalks of a few cities. Inside is food for the hungry and homeless.

In some neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, you might pass a small café and see a refrigerator sitting up against the store wall. Over the fridge is a sign, which reads, "Take freely, only what you need."

Seriously. People can walk up to that fridge, open the door, take what they need and walk away.

These "solidarity fridges," or "social fridges," are a way of showing to the poor and needy that there are, in fact, people who care about them, stand with them and want to help.

In fact, most of the fridges in Buenos Aires are part of an initiative started by NGO Red Solidaria. The sidewalk fridges remove to a great extent the need for the poor and homeless to beg for food. It's not like a soup kitchen where the homeless have to line up, hold out their plates and a worker fills their bowls with soup or food. No, in this model, the homeless or poor can get food themselves, take what they need and leave the rest.

The food itself is put into the fridges by café and restaurant owners and ...