Natural disasters are a time for all of us to step and do what we can to help our fellow citizens. Food for Life Global has been a first-responder to some of the greatest natural disasters over the last 30 years. If you would like to help us to respond to Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma or Hurricane Jose, please fill in this form.
Rains come and floods happen, but the 300% rainfall that fell in Chennai has devastated the lives of the people in Chennai. While the poor people in slums lost saw their huts and their meager possessions washed away, people in towering apartments were stranded and without food for three to five days. Imagine the scene, as heavy rains fill up lakes, the overflowing water bursts through their boundaries. Even as you see water overflowing into the streets and your home, sometimes breaking down walls, you are already knee deep in water. Poor laborers, engineers, and affluent actors had to rush somewhere to safety. Many were rescued – but many are still being rescued by boats and helicopters. ISKCON Chennai’s Food for Life program which was able to cook and serve meals on the very day that the great Asian tsunami struck in 2004, was this time, neck deep in water. […]
September 4, Ljubljana, Slovenia — In light of the refugee influx in Europe, many organizations are coming together to actively support migrants to help their survival and transition. In the last month, Food for Life Global (FFLG) and its European affiliates have distributed over 10,000 meals to refugee families throughout several countries. Since August 29th, Food for Life Budapest has been supplying hot meals at 6 o’clock in the morning. “We are distributing 300 hot meals every morning including fruits, tea, water, chocolates for children and clothing. They like our Hungarian cuisine and relish whatever we cook for them,” said Gandharvika Prema, Communications Officer, FFL Budapest. On September 2nd, there was a large wave of families at the Budapest Nyugati Railway Terminal queuing for the tasty meals being served by FFL Budapest. Another Food for Life volunteer stated, “We have heard some heartbreaking stories. Tired refugees have been camping nearby the […]
Since no other relief agencies are reaching these areas, the people are highly appreciative of our efforts May 10, 2015, Kathmandu — Food for Life Global affiliate, Food for Life Nepal has been non-stop in the kitchen and on the streets of Kathmandu, Bhaktipur and many remote villages affected by the massive earthquake that struck on April 25. “Today we went to Dulal Village (20km away from our kitchen) to distribute food and relief materials received from Sahid Bhagavat Singh Comrade organization. The bad weather, prevented us visiting other places today,” explained Visvajit Vrajesa Das, director of the program. Volunteers provided 100 blankets to the residents of Dulal village at 3 different spots, along with 250 kgs of rice, 50 large bags of flour, and 300 packets of biscuits to the village children. Remote areas being served, where no other NGOs go To date, more than 90,000 people have been provided hot meals […]
Bhaktipur, Nepal — ISKCON FOOD FOR LIFE Nepal distributed over 2,500 hot kichadi (bean, rice, vegetable stew) to children and adult survivors of the massive earthquake that hit the area on April 25th. The places included Bolachenn, Golmadhi, Bhimsensthan, Saraswati School, Kamal Vinayak, Byasi, Jhaukhel and Bhaktapur Bus Park. Food for Life Global has also donated to Animal Nepal and Tree of Compassion to help them continue their work of rescuing and feeding animals. The Krishna monks also organized a condolence program at Bhaktapur Durbar Square in the evening for the people who lost their life in Bhaktapur. About 30 members of ISKCON lit candles and sang kirtan for the departed souls. See entire photo album Thank you to everyone praying and supporting this effort with donations.
November 20-30 — About 8,200 hot vegan meals were served in Tacloban from November 15 to November 20 by the Sankirtan FFL team headed by Balarama Dasa. Simultaneously, another 2,730 vegan meals were served in Manila by the Food for Life team headed by Makanlal Dasa & head chef Gokula Chandra Dasa. In Cebu, 4,200 hot vegan meals were served from November 23-30 in some places in Northern Cebu with the help of Gopal Krishna Dasa, Jayasri Devi Dasi and her family who owns the Monterey School where the FFL team set up the kitchen. Hot meals were served while some local monks entertained the locals with kirtan. A total of 15,130 meals have been served over the past 13 days. Local Officials Fully Supporting FFL On November 30th, the Food for Life emergency relief team reached Bantayan Island, which took 5 hours by road and a 1 hour barge. The local […]
November 11 – Our FFL team started out for Leyte in the morning. We left our base camp at around 8am to travel some 1500 km Abuyog, Leyte. We drove to Legazpi city in the Albay province. November 12 – We continued driving, carrying rice, dahl and vegetables, diesel and fresh water in preparation of the challenging situation ahead of us. We then reached the port in Matnog, Sorsogon at around 11:00 pm only to be greeted by a huge line of motorists and passengers all waiting to catch the boat. All of them had been stranded for days because of the typhoon. Luckily, we managed to get into the priority lists to board the boat. November 13 – At 1:00am we finally boarded the ship. We continued our journey until we reached Catbalogan city in Samar, about 100km away from Tacloban — ground zero for emergency relief. Some of […]
May 8th, Sunday (Miyagi, Japan) — FFL Global in Japan once again served two delicious vegetarian curries, paratha (flatbread), salad, cakes, and hot rice to more than 550 Japanese survivors in Miyagi. The program was sponsored by IJAJ (Indian Jewelry Association of Japan). “Our plan is to continue this effort unabated,” said FFL Director for Japan, Shrikant Shah. “Next week we plan to deliver hot meals for 700 people, along with 1,500 kgs of fresh fruits and vegetables, including Oranges (600 pieces), Apple (600 pieces), Grapefruits (600 pieces), Bananas (1,000 pieces), Mikan (600 pieces), Kiwi (300 pieces), Lettuce (100 pieces), Cucumber (30 kg), Spinach (100 packs), Cabbage (100 pieces), Tomatoes (720 pieces), and Cauliflower (100 pieces).” “The Agarwal Group and Hindi Sabha Group have already pledged to support this large task next week,” said Shah. “However, in order to keep this momentum, we are appealing for more people to come forward and sponsor Food for Life’s work.” Once […]
