Saturday, November 23, 1996 marked the inauguration of Feed the World Day (FWD). On this day, Food for Life volunteers and friends in over 100 countries served karma-free vegetarian meals in honor of the Centennial of Swami Prabhupada (1896-1996), the inspiration behind Food for Life, who once wrote: “Simply by the liberal distribution of prasadam and sankirtan (singing spiritual songs), the whole world can become peaceful and prosperous.”
In 1997, in order to facilitate greater cooperation and to increase food distribution, the event was expanded another 6 days and was renamed “Feed the World Week (Oct 15-21). Food for Life Global’s mission is to UNITE THE WORLD THROUGH PURE FOOD, and so we invite anyone and everyone to join us! October 15-21 will mark the annual observance of Feed the World Week (FWW). During this week, Food for Life volunteers and inspired vegans, vegetarians and animal lovers in over 60 countries will serve out millions of karma-free plant-based meals to the world!
Objectives
Feed the World Week is based on a simple principle:For one week, the world should experience a wholesome, nonviolent diet, and thus pave the way for genuine peace and prosperity. Feed the World Week is an open community event to show how food when prepared and distributed with love, has the power to unite and heal the world. Feed the World Week is a call for action: for the world to move away from animal agriculture—the greatest cause of environmental pollution and the principle reason why there is so much hunger in the world today. Most non-vegetarians are unaware that more than 70% of the world’s grain production is fed to livestock destined for slaughterhouses. That same grain could feed humans. Every year, millions of children in the developing world die from hunger, alongside fields of fodder destined for the West’s livestock. In an attempt to correct this imbalance of the earth’s resources, Food for Life volunteers daily distribute up to two million karma-free meals to the needy of the world! During Feed the World Week, we share healthy non-violent food in remembrance of the world’s 1.3 billion hungry. The fact is, if Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10 percent, enough grains would be saved to feed sixty million people!
How To Get Involved?
FWW is an open community event to promote prasadam distribution as the most proactive solution to the world hunger and world peace. If you would like to get involved, you can either volunteer at your local Food for Life project or conduct your own program, as outlined in our starter guide. Contact your local ISKCON temple or restaurant for volunteer opportunities.
Sponsorship
Every big festival requires money. If you or someone you know is interested in FWW, but cannot get involved with distributing, cooking, transporting or serving at the main feast programs, then why not ask them to sponsor those that can? Talk to your local project about opportunities.
Donate
Donate to our general fund or donate food or equipment to Feed the World activities. However, the following are some other ways that one can support Feed the World Week: Organic produce Grains, beans, pulses Serving facilities Serving equipment Plates, spoons, and cups Paper for printing advertisement space Billboards Vehicles to deliver food. All donations are tax deductible. Please contact the FWW coordinator in your area or email FFL Global.
FAQs
Feed the World Week is a unique scheme to unite the world through food and a way to awaken people to the benefits of a cruelty-free world.
Briefly, a plant-based diet is now the recommended dietary choice by world experts for a number of reasons: it’s healthier for the heart; it’s economically sound; it’s better for the environment and it enables more people to eat. Did you know that 75 percent of the world grain production is fed to livestock. That same grain could feed the 1.3 billion people now considered undernourished.
The point is that there is no lack of food in the world; the earth has a capacity to feed ten times the present population. Our aim in celebrating Feed the World Week is to bring this fact to the attention of the world — it is indeed possible to feed the world. Only human society has a hunger problem.
Because of greed. One person is taking more than their quota while another person is deprived of his share. Srila Prabhupada, the Founder of Hare Krishna Food for Life, the world’s largest vegetarian food relief, desired to correct this imbalance in society, through the liberal distribution of prasadam (sanctified food). In essence, it is greed that is at the root of the world hunger problem and this greed is an indication of an immoral and spiritually ignorant society.
No. FWW is non-sectarian open community event.