Feeding the homeless in India & Pakistan after the earthquake

October 29) -- Food for Life volunteers from Jammu, Amritsar, New Delhi and Hardwar came together to provide relief for victims of the recent earthquake in Pakistan. Working from an ISKCON temple in Udhampur, which was within the earthquake-affected region, the volunteers loaded trucks with drinking water, rice, bread, and blankets. Soon after arriving in fresh meals were cooked and survivors were fed, sheltered and clothed by Food for Life.

Some of the towns visited by the FFL relief team were, Baramulla, Kapwana, Kamalkot, Bandi, Kandi Barjalaand Lagama situated high up in the hills where the most sever devastation took place.

Local military and police worked side by side the FFL team as they traveled all over the region stopping at every demolished structure and distributing food, tents and blankets. Leader of the relief team, Navayogendra swami was careful to treat the survivors respectfully, sitting everyone down and gifting all the supplies they needed, starting with the elderly, women and children.

Food for Life Global is requesting donations of the following items for these relief efforts:

• Insulated tents for the harsh winter weather of this region
• New woolen jackets (no old clothing)
• Blankets, Woolen shawls and woolen mattresses
• Candles, matches, salt, chilies, cooking oil, and utensils.

To donate directly to these efforts, send check to:

"Food for Life Global - Emergency Relief Fund"
PO Box 59037
Potomac, MD 20859, USA

Summary of Katrina / Rita Relief in Texas

October 19, Food For Life Global, the world’s largest vegetarian/vegan food relief organization was one of the first responders to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in late August, by providing freshly cooked meals to needy families in Mississippi and then Texas.

A Food for Life team based in Houston began serving hot meals to the many displaced victims who had been relocated to shelters.

The details of this effort are as follows:

Up to 800 meals were served daily to Hurricane survivors located in various shelters throughout Texas over the last 2 months.

Distribution places included:

• Fire Station in Hardin, TX
• Baptist Church in Rie, TX
• Parkland Mall in Beaumont, TX working alongside FEMA
• SHAPE community center in Houston
• Red Cross Shelter (Freeway Manor Baptist Church, Houston)
• Red Cross Shelter Rice (St. Francis Cabrini)
• First Baptist, Houston
• Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, Houston
• IM Meals on wheels program
• Red Cross Shelter (Christchurch Christian Fellowship, Houston)
• Black Forest Theater (in cooperation with Erykah Badu)

Personnel involved:

• Meals were prepared in an Industrial kitchen at the ISKCON church in Houston, TX.
• Meals were always freshly cooked using organic fresh produce and included:
  
  • Chili & beans, rice, banana bread, salad with avocado dressing and fruit (watermelons, apples, oranges.)
  • Pasta with tofu, broccoli, carrots, fresh baked banana bread.
  • Vegetable stew with potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, as well as basmati rice and fresh baked banana bread.
  • Rice, garbanzo stew and fresh salad.
  • Chili & beans, rice, salad, peach Cobbler

A van was loaded daily with prepared meals packaged in to-go containers, placed in thermal boxes and then transported around the city and to other shelters up to 90 miles away.

Food for LIfe continues to provide vegan meals on a part-time basis, complimenting other agencies in the area.

Organic Produce donated

September 29, -- A big quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables was donated on Monday by a relief organization based in California. Cem Akin, Director, of The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) flew into Houston and immediately went to the whole food markets where he filled up a van with $1600 of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables and delivered them to the Food for Life kitchen! FTPF is a registered non profit. More information at: www.ftpf.org

Erykah Badu

In early October Food for Life volunteers in Dallas joined legendary R&B singer/songwriter Erykah Badu at her Black Forest Theater to provide food and entertainment to children of the Katrina Hurricane disaster. Italian-style pasta, cookies and lemonade were served to the more than 100 children and their parents. "We want to continue working with your people," explained the organizers.

Links: Black Forest Theater

Online game promotes
A video game which aims to teach children about global hunger has been released by the United Nations. Food Force is the brainchild of the World Food Programme (WFP), which last year fed more than 100 million people. The game is really quite engaging. If only we Food for Life could have a similar game so that we could introduce our solution to world hunger - pure vegetarian food (prasadam), that causes no harm to animals, the environment and raises consciousness. Our founder, Swami Prabhupada, said many times that world hunger was due to a lack of food but was caused by greed -- a direct result of selfishness and forgetfulness of God. It is interesting now that the new Pope recently said exactly the same thing.

Pope says world hunger man-caused
TODAYonline - Singapore -- Pope Benedict XVI, in a condemnation of world hunger, said that famine was caused by human selfishness and the profit motive as well as by atmospheric or ...(read full article)

Sharing the message at European Vegetarian Congress

(From left) Hiren Kara, Director PETA India, Paul Turner, Director of Food for Life Global, Rupal Turner ClassicalFengShui.com

October 1 - 7, Italy -- The European Vegetarian Congress kicked off on Saturday 1 October 2005 in

Riccione, Italy with a reception and gala dinner. The event last 6 days with speakers from all over the world. Director of Food for Life Global, Paul Turner gave 3 presentations, a "Solution to World Hunger," a slide show on the FFL's Tsunami relief, and a talk on how FFL's karma-free food distribution can create peace and prosperity in the world. Rupal Turner, Paul's wife gave a special talk on Feng Shui in the kitchen. Her talk was was well received as she introduced the audience to the importance of good consciousness in the kitchen. You can contact Rupal at www.classicalfengshui.com

HOW YOU CAN HELP!

Aside from financial contributions, Food for Life Global is also looking for donations of the following equipment:

• 2 new computers
• Mobile kitchen truck for the DC area
• plates, spoons and cups
• more office space in DC Metropolitan area

Call 301 987 5883 or write to FFL Donation Center

Concerned people are also encouraged to donate to these efforts through our paypal account.

Help support FFL Disaster Food Relief: (All donations are tax deductible)

Donations by Check "Food for Life Global Emergency Fund" PO Box 59037 Potomac, MD 20859 USA

All volunteers MUST REGISTER with Food for Life Global

Remote Volunteering / Fund Raiser / Activists

Food for Life is encouraging people to give their time in their local area to help raise awareness of FFL's activities and thus raise much needed money. Many students have emailed to ask if they can organize a fundraising drive at their campus. The answer is a resounding "Yes." Please help in whatever way you can, whether it is selling t-shirts, approaching your local businesses, or writing an article in a blog. We just ask that you keep Food for Life Global informed of all your activities.

Food for Life Global recently published the FFL World Hunger Map. The map is printed on full color gloss photo paper and will make an excellent display in any temple, church, home, or office. The map depicts all the major regions of the world suffering from hunger and is superimposed with locations of FFL projects. Bordering the 36x24 inch map are pictures of FFL recipients, including shots from the recent tsunami relief program.

Data from the map is based on the official World Food Programme hunger map (www.wfp.org) and includes interesting facts and figures. Did you know that 864 million people in the world today are hungry or malnourished? Even more alarming, every minute of the day, 11 children under the age of 5 die from hunger-related diseases!

Our hope is to raise awareness of this major world issue. The more people are conscious of this problem, the better it will be for those suffering. Food for Life strongly believes that a vegetarian diet is a step in the right direction to reducing world hunger.

The FFL World Hunger Map is available for $5 each (plus shipping). Proceeds will go towards supporting FFL projects around the world. Printing is limited, so order today!

ADVOCACY Package (Updated Nov 2005)

Please help get the word out! Print these documents and distribute far and wide in your area.

• New FFL Brochure (Print and distribute)
• NEW FFL Katrina Relief Poster
• New FFL Donor Flyer (Print and post in your local restaurant)
• FACT SHEET - Food for Life Global
• Web Site or Blog Announcement (Tell people about FFL on blogs and community websites)
• Creative Ways to Help (Tips and ideas for advocacy)
• Email Signature (Add this signature to all your email message)
• For webmasters (Place one of these banners on your web site with a link to our home page (www.ffl.org).

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Food for Life in the News

• Loyola alum brings hope to orphans

Volunteer Coordinator Needed

Food for Life Global continues to receive applications from volunteers wishing to assist FFL in its worldwide projects. We desperately need the expert help of an experienced Volunteer Coordinator. The ideal person needs to have the following qualifications:

• Familiarity with Food for Life projects
• Vegetarian or vegan
• Enthusiastic, determined and straight-forward in dealings
• Able to communicate with a wide range of personality types
• Can work virtually as well as on-site when needed
• Good team player
• Ability to "Rally the troops" and inspire people
• Creative in engaging people in service

If you or someone you know possess these traits, please write to us with references.

Gokulam - Bhaktivedanta Children's Home
607A, Negombo Road
Mabola
Wattala
Tel: (+ 94) 11 294-8398
www.gokulam.org

Donations by Check

Send to:
Food for Life Global - Emergency Relief Fund
PO Box 59037 
Potomac, MD 20859, USA 

All donations are tax deductible. Food for Life Tax ID: 52-195-2901

Where You Can Donate

JustGive and Network for Good, both of which are prominently displaying Food for Life on their hunger relief pages and of course at the FFL web site using PayPal. (Note: PayPal does extract a very small percentage of the donated money for transaction fees. Typically $3 for a $100 donation).

Thank you for your friendship.

On behalf of all the Food for Life volunteers, we hope this meets you in the best of health and happiness.

Paul Turner
Director

The Food for Life Global Friends Newsletter is distributed to more than 20,000 vegans and vegetarians worldwide.

(c) 2005 Food for Life Global - Using text or pictures contained within this newsletter without the expressed permission of Food for Life Global is illegal.

Paul Rodney Turner (Priya)
Food for Life Global
PO Box 59037
Potomac, MD 20859, USA
phone: (301) 987-5883
www.ffl.org