Food for Life

Feed the World Week 2018

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For the last 22 years, Food for Life Global has promoted and hosted Feed the World Week, inspired by the words of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who once said, “Invite the world, we can feed them.” The event was kickstarted during the 100th anniversary birthday of Prabhupada as a one-day event and it continued on to this day as a weekly event. During this week, Food for Life projects and supporters of Food for Life Global will do their best to extend their hospitality as much as possible to make sure that no one in their immediate vicinity goes hungry. Prabhupada is the inspiration behind the Food for Life project, for it was his desire that no one go hungry and that “everyone should get a chance to get prasadam…” Prasadam is a Sanskrit word that literally means mercy and specifically refers to plant-based food that has been offered in devotion to Krishna. At Food for Life Global, we make it a rule that our affiliate projects only serve prasadam to the public thus uniquely distinguishing our feeding program from the thousands of others in that we intentionally try to make our meals nourishing for the body, mind, and soul. Feed the World Week is as much about feeding as many people as possible as it is about sharing a message of unity. Food is the great uniter of all peoples and when food is prepared with a loving intention, offered in devotion and served indiscriminately it has the power to unite the world. This message of unity is perfectly explained and couriered in the food yoga tradition. The word yoga essentially means to unite and therefore food yoga is the art and science of using food as the medium to create a sense of unity among all living beings. To […]

Help us Feed Victims of Kerala Floods

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Over 1 million people displaced by massive flooding in Kerala Devastating floods have killed more than 400 people and engulfed entire towns in a southern state in India. A total of 10,28,000 people have been sheltered in 3,274 camps in the flood-hit districts, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday while tonnes of emergency aid poured in from all over the country. The massive flood in Kerala has been declared a calamity of severe nature, the Union home ministry said on Monday. “Keeping in view the intensity and magnitude of floods and landslides in Kerala this is a calamity of severe nature for all practical purposes,” a home ministry official said.  FFL Responds Food for Life Global’s partner in India, the Annamrita Foundation are already responding to the disaster, providing freshly prepared vegan meals. Food for Life Global has affiliates in the Kerala state that are already serving thousands of hot meals to survivors. A team of cooks and servers from Mumbai arrived recently and are serving an additional  2000 hot meals a day in areas around Kerala. Resources and funds are the critical in all disaster management operations so all donations are a tremendous  help. Donations will be used to support the efforts of our affiliates in India. PLEASE DONATE

An Exciting Future for Food for Life Global

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Many of you are aware that I’ve been involved with Food for Life for 35 years now. My first service when I became a monk was preparing and serving meals to underprivileged at one of the first Food for Life projects in Australia. A lot has happened since then, including expanding into 60 countries and reaching a milestone of our 211 affiliates serving 5 billion free meals on May 15th this year. But what is our future vision for Food for Life? And how do we see our strategy solving world hunger? Some of you might have read this article I wrote many years back where I lay out our essential philosophy and strategy for solving world hunger. Essentially, we propose that the way to solve world hunger is by addressing the root cause — spiritual inequality — which has led to a greedy world where the abundant resources are not equitably distributed. Our vision for how we expect to achieve that goal, however, has taken on a new twist. Certainly, our fundamental activities of supporting our affiliates through grants, education, and training will continue, however, we have come to realize that in this age of corporatocracy where business rules everything, it behooves us to fight where the fight is taking place and bring Food for Life Global’s cost-efficiency and purity to the exciting and innovative world of blockchain. I am only going to tease you in this article and not release much more details. What I will tell you is that we are setting up a social enterprise, independent of the charity whose primary purpose will be to empower and fund Food for Life Global’s mission. If you would like to learn more about this social enterprise and hear about investment opportunities, you can join our mailing list.

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 […]

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 Houston Serving Vegan Meals to Hurricane Survivors

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HELP US HELP TEXAS FLOOD VICTIMS An estimated 21 trillion gallons of rain fell on the Houston area as a result of Hurricane Harvey, causing 51 inches of flooding in the worst hit places and resulting in over 1 million displaced people. Harvey’s devastating flooding brought back tough memories in New Orleans as Tuesday marked the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The death toll in Texas related to Hurricane Harvey rose to at least 37 Thursday morning, CNN reports. The Govinda’s vegetarian restaurant in Houston has been offering 300-400 free vegan meals to victims since the storm hit, however, they are now delivering free vegan meals to area shelters, including 200 hot meals to volunteers at the University of Houston who are doing volunteer service at various shelters. “The shelters don’t have vegan food for volunteers, so we stepped up,” says Shyamasundara, the ISKCON temple president. The temple is also offering spiritual counseling services for those in need and doing kirtan and prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Food for Life Global is collecting funds on behalf of the vegan food relief. Please donate to sponsor free vegan meals to those in need in Texas. More update coming soon… You can make a difference with a gift to Food for Life Global via our US partner A Well-Fed World. Your donation will help more people become free of hunger. We rely on people like you to help us continue our vital projects, so please do support us.

ISKCON Food Relief Foundation receives IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award

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Source: Dandavats By Radha Krishna Das ISKCON Food Relief Foundation – Annamrita, an NGO affiliate of Food for Life Global that has been working tirelessly for nearly 13 years to fight classroom hunger and provide the underprivileged school children of India with wholesome nutritious meals has won the prestigious IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality award for the second year in a row. Inspired by Srila Prabhupada – the Founder Acharya of International Society for Krishna Consciousness who was a true visionary and wanted to see a hunger-free world, the motto of Annamrita is to serve “Food as Pure as Nectar” to all. In partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments and inestimable support from many philanthropic donors, corporates and well-wishers; Annamrita has grown from humble beginnings to serving just 900 students in one school, to today serving 1.2 million meals every day of which over 100,000 meals are served in Mumbai itself and nearly 300,000 meals daily in Maharashtra. The work received recognition and commendation through several awards and citations. This decision was preceded by 4 rounds which needed to be cleared; application and interview, then documentation, submissions and finally NGO site visits to the Mira Road and Tardeo kitchens that were both audited by a panel. ISKCON Food Relief Foundation finally won the Certificate of Merit in the NGO category. The Awards ceremony which was held at Y B Chavan Auditorium Mumbai on 16th March 2017 saw a gathering of eminent individuals from various sectors like FMCS, Transport, Finance, Healthcare and Social Work. The event was presided over by the esteemed panel consisting of Mr. Deepak Premnarayan – President IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Niraj Bajaj – Chairman, IMC RBNQ Award Trust, Mr. Suresh Lulla- Chairman IMC RBNQA as well as members of the […]

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