FFL News

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, R&D signs Letter of Intent with IFRF, Haryana

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The two social problems in India – Poverty and Hunger go hand in hand. Not every poor person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are poor. So, to eradicate the problem, we need to start with its root cause. ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (IFRF) Haryana (an affiliate of Food for Life Global), currently serves midday meal to more than two thousand schools in Haryana. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), R&D center at Faridabad recognized the great work done by ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, Haryana (IFRF) in the field of Midday meal. Under its Corporate Social Responsibility scheme, the entire burden of Cooking gas and Delivery Vehicle’s CNG will be borne by Indian Oil Corporation. On 23rd April, in the august presence of Honorable Minister of Industries and Environment (Government of Haryana), “Letter of Intent” was exchanged between IFRF’s Vice Chairman-North India, Dhananjaya Krishna Das and TSR Gopalarao, IOCL-R&D’s Chief General Manager. The domestic waste from the households of Faridabad will be picked, segregated and converted into Biogas by a unique “Bio-Methanation Patented Plant” conceptualized in-house by the IOCL’s R&D center. The amazing CSR activity is the result of a joint collaboration by IOCL with HUDA (Haryana Urban Development Authority), MCF (Municipal Corporation of Faridabad), Ecogreen Energy and IFRF, Haryana. Speaking on the occasion Vipul Goel – Minister of Industries and Environment described IFRF as the true and deserving recipient of the CSR activity. Also Dr. SSV Ramakumar, Director – R&D center felt privileged to help ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, Haryana in feeding 60 thousand students of the Faridabad district. In regard to the alarming situation where 40 percent of all Indian children still remain malnourished, ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, Haryana with the motto “Food for Life” has started initiative #ZEROHUNGERHARYANA – an attempt to eradicate hunger and malnutrition to make Haryana – A Hunger-Free State. With Act Social, one of the fastest growing cause marketing company as the program’s implementing partner, ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (IFRF) shall endeavor to accelerate #ZEROHUNGERHARYANA as a state wise and then a country wise program. The campaign will enable and motivate children to go to schools regularly by providing them hygienic and nutritious food. […]

Food for All London Expands to New Krishna Castle

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London, UK, March 2018 — Parasurama das (aka Para) the ever-exuberant and hardest working social worker in London has expanded his 20-year old Food for All feeding program by establishing a new facility called the “Krishna Castle.” The Romans founded London about 50 AD. Its name is derived from the Celtic word Londinios, which means “the place of the bold one.” In this same spirit, Parasurama and his team of volunteers were bold for Krishna by building the Krishna Castle in the heart of London, Holborn. In his newsletter, he wrote: “One of the main builders was “Bhima the Giant” (over seven foot seven tall, a famous movie actor) and so nothing short of a castle would be good enough for him and the Pancha Tatva Deities.” The castle is located in the student area, so Parasurama and his team plan to distribute 2,500 free healthy meals daily to the student community, by having 4 cargo rickshaws full of hot meals going to the SOAS, UCL, LSE and Kings University. Along with the hot meals, they are building a mobile exhibition to sell books, and do weekly kirtans and festivals. The new initiative will not only help students but also reach out to the homeless and poor school children. According to the latest statistics, 25% of children from lower-income families go to school hungry. *Note: This is a not a 100% vegan project. Although it is vegetarian. Even a major snowstorm does not slow them down Even in the harshest snowy weather, in keeping with Prabhupada’s wish that “no one goes hungry within 10 miles of any temple,” Parasuram and his valiant FFA team keep their commitment to feed the hungry. Food For All (FFA) is a registered charity based in London that distributes 1,000 enriched nutritionally balanced vegetarian meals, to different groups of […]

Help us Feed 100,000 Children with the Launch of our New NGO

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Yes, we will feed 100,000 needy children if you help us reach $10,000 Background Food for Life Global was originally founded in 1994 and registered as a 501c3 in 1995 in Potomac, MD. In 2014, we moved our office to the Western European country of Slovenia. However, we’ve come to realize that to be most effective supporting our affiliates and regional representatives we need to establish regional offices. In pursuit of this new direction, we’ve recently re-established our presence in the US as Food for Life Global – Americas (FFLGA). This office will focus on the Americas (Canada, USA, Central and South America) and our Slovenian office will now become the Western European regional office. We are in the process of acquiring our 501c3 status but in the meantime, any donations to FFLGA will still be tax deductible in 2019. Our future plans are to open regional offices for Australasia, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Africa – Middle East. To date, Food for Life Global affiliates have served over 4.8 billion meals in 60 countries and our plan is to support this expansion so that hunger is totally eradicated from the planet. Right now we are calling on our supporters to help us kickstart this new office in the US and we have a special offer for you. Become a Founder Member Choose one of our founder member gold cards that are embedded with a pure gold ingot and feed thousands of needy children. However, every donation helps. So please dig deep and help us continue our important work. 100% of the donations will benefit Food for Life Global – Americas and our important service to expand pure food (prasadam) relief around the world. Thank you, Paul Rodney Turner Founder and President

A summary of my journey with FFLG

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Paul Turner managing the serving of the 2 millionth meal in Sydney

Today, I want to share a summary of my journey with Food for Life Global. I started my career with Food for Life as a young monk in Sydney. I was 20 years-old when I got started and was one of the early pioneers of the project in the 80s in Australia. My big contribution back then was to demonstrate how effectively FFL was as a communications tool to inspire all kinds of people to participate in this service and assimilate its message of equality. I took a lead role in developing Food for Life in Australia and in 1991, I managed the celebration of the serving of the 2-millionth free meal in Sydney, where Clover Moore cut the cake. I launched the Food for Life International newsletter, writing it on my Mac+ computer, cutting and pasting photos, reproducing it on a copy machine, stapling pages together and then sending the newsletter out to ISKCON temples all around the world with my own money. In 1993, I left Australia as a monk and started lecturing and training others to start their own FFL project in Eastern Europe and Asia. During one travel stint I visited 44 cities in Eastern Europe in 2 months, lecturing morning and evening. in 1994, I settled in the US to establish the first-ever headquarters for what was then a grassroots operations in about 10 countries. Food for Life Global was originally founded by myself and my mentor, Mukunda Goswami in 1994 and registered as a 501c3 in 1995 in Potomac, MD. One of the first things I did was build a website in 1995, way before most larger companies had a presence on the web. Sadly, there are no records of that very early website but there are from as early as 1998 on the […]

New NGO established in the US – FFLG Americas

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Food for Life Global Americas logo

Food for Life Global was originally founded in 1994 and registered as a 501c3 in 1995 in Potomac, MD. In 2014, we moved our office to the Western European country of Slovenia. However, we’ve come to realize that to be most effective supporting our affiliates and regional representatives we need to establish regional offices. In pursuit of this new direction, we’ve recently re-established our presence in the US as Food for Life Global – Americas (FFLGA). This office will focus on the Americas (Canada, USA, Central and South America) and our Slovenian office will now become the Western European regional office. We are in the process of acquiring our 501c3 status but in the meantime, any donations to FFLGA will still be tax deductible in 2019. Our future plans are to open regional offices for Australasia, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Africa – Middle East. If you’re interested in helping us establish these new regional offices to provide support and guidance to your region, please contact us now.    

Food for Life Mexico is making a big impact

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Food for Life Mexico was supported by Food for Life Global with a grant last year to respond to the massive earthquake that hit the city. Thousands of vegan meals were served during those chaotic weeks following the devastation and they received praise from the local Red Cross agency that told them that their meals were the best of all humanitarian agencies. Fast forward to 2018, and the newly created team has expanded its efforts and is providing hundreds of meals weekly. They recently provided 400 meals to patients at the Trajimos Hospital. “We are serving our patients what they request,” explained program manager Annapurna dasi. “Of course, every meal is vegan and today we served oatmeal porridge, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fresh fruit (mango and bananas).”    

Food Yoga Academy Launched

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The Food Yoga Academy, the brainchild of International director of Food for Life, Paul Rodney Turner (aka Priyavrata das) has officially launched. The Academy’s first course is Food Yogi Certification Level 1, where students can learn the fundamentals of the food yoga lifestyle and how to enrich their lives through conscious eating and devotion. Based on the teachings of his book, FOOD YOGA – Nourishing Body, Mind & Soul, students will learn the art and science of eating with consciousness and compassion to provide a framework to elevate the act of eating from the dry and mundane to a soul-satisfying experience. In this introduction to Food Yoga, Turner lays out the 10 fundamental truths. Students will learn about the more subtle aspect of food and how to achieve optimum health by practicing the Food Yogi diet and lifestyle, which includes, what to eat, when to eat, water therapy, detoxing and the sacred geometry of wholefoods. The courses will also include raw vegan food demonstrations, including smoothies, pates and crackers, cheesecakes, and soups, etc. Students will be tested at the end of the course to earn their certification. WHAT IS FOOD YOGA? “This Level 1 course gives the fundamentals of the prasadarian lifestyle,” says Turner. “However, in Level 2 we will dive deep into all the details of preparing food with love in order to nourish the mind and spirit. His book food yoga was a direct response to the inspiration behind Food for Life, Srila Prabhupada who said that “Everyone should get a chance to take prasadam*.” “I realized that we had to empower people with the knowledge of prasadam but in order to do that I had to build a framework for understanding. The book, therefore, takes the reader on a journey of first discovering how food and thoughts […]

Animal advocacy through religions – ISKCON and the dilemma of commercial dairy use

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The annual Animal Rights Conference is the world’s largest and longest-running animal rights gathering, hailing back to 1981. It is the only conference open to all points of view on achieving animal liberation. This year it was held on Aug 3 – 6 at the Hilton Hotel in Virginia, USA. FFL Director, Paul Rodney Turner, and his wife Juliana were representing Juliana’s Animal Sanctuary and Food for Life Global. Kosa Eli, the author of The Peaceable Forest was also there promoting her new book about Jaguars and saving the rainforest, and so too was Rangadevi dasi from Govinda’s Catering offering vegan cakes and desserts. Turner was invited to be on a panel titled: “Engaging Through Religion” (Engaging various religious denominations in animal advocacy). “I have been speaking at this conference since 1999 and typically I would give a talk on solutions to world hunger and a report on the work of Food for Life projects around the world,” he explained. “However, this panel topic was not suitable for that so I decided to lay out all the cards on the table for this panel.” The first speaker was, Jeffrey Cohan, the Executive Director of Jewish Veg, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage and help Jews to transition to veganism. The 2nd speaker was Stephen R. Kaufman, MD, the chair of the Christian Vegetarian Association and vice-chair of the Medical Research Modernization Committee. His books include Guided by the Faith of Christ: Seeking to Stop Violence and Scapegoating. His articles include “Animal Research is Wasteful and Misleading” published in Scientific American with coauthor Dr. Neal Barnard. Next was Turner who explained how Krishna is praised as the transcendental cowherd boy and “Makhan Chor,” the butter thief. “There is no question that Krishna holds a supreme position in Hinduism,” he explained to the […]

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