4 Billion Meals Served

FFL News, world hunger - 4 billion, annamrita, charity, feeding children, free meals, prasadam, vegan, vegetarian - December 30, 2016

We did it! Serving 4 billion meals is no easy feat, but today, Food for Life Global’s network of 210 affiliates in 60 countries quietly served out the 4 billionth meal. To put that in perspective that is two meals for every child in the world. Starting as a grassroots operation in the fields of Mayapur, West Bengal, inspired by the words of a simple India Swami, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, that “no one within ten miles of our temple should go hungry,” the project gradually expanded around the world to now include award-winning mega kitchens in India that churn out up to 70,000 meals a day! Food for Life Global’s network of affiliates may not get the recognition of other charities like the Red Cross, but it is made up of the most dedicated volunteers on the planet — day in day out – cooking enormous quantities of nutritious plant-based food to satisfy the needs of millions. “Our mission is to unite the world through pure food,” explains Paul Rodney Turner, Co-founder and director of Food for Life Global that was established in 1995. “Through our indiscriminate distribution of plant-based meals we are directly addressing the root cause of hunger and all forms of social injustice, by communicating to our recipients that we love and respect them as our brother or sister.” “By only using plant-based ingredients we are extending this same love and respect to all sentient beings, ” he said. “Every year, more than 56 million animals are killed for food and this is just unacceptable.” Food for Life Global’s spiritual solution to world hunger is not only bolstered by its tremendous ability to cook and serve more food than any other non-profit in the world, but it is also a partner in establishing the Food Surplus Hub […]

Hungry Harvest collaborates with Food for Life Baltimore

FFL News, Get Involved - Food for Life, Food Relief, food surplus, Hungry Harvest, vegetarian - April 22, 2015

“Hungry Harvest is a mission-driven organization that strives to eliminate food waste and eradicate hunger in the United States, starting with Maryland. They take fresh, surplus fruits and vegetables from local farms and wholesalers around the Mid-Atlantic and deliver it once a week. In addition, for every bag they deliver, they donate a bag to a person in need in the community. Food Waste 6 billion pounds of produce goes to waste for unfathomable reasons each year while just around the DC/MD community, ten of thousands of families cannot afford healthy meals each week. Hungry Harvest partners with various donation partners and families to donate healthy fruits and vegetables to them. Co-founder of Hungry Harvest, John Zamora contacted Food for Life Baltimore to see what produce they could use for their free meal program. “For the past 3 weeks we have been donating to the Baltimore chapter of Food For Life run by Lalit and Vidarbha Agarwal,” explained John. One might ask, ‘what comes in each bag since it’s surplus?’ Each week, Hungry Harvest delivers has a variety — from carrots, apples, potatoes and squash to strawberries, onions, kale, and pears. Some fruit might be funny shaped, oversized, or under-sized, but they don’t discriminate since it all tastes the same! Their website is www.hungryharvest.net if you are interested in photos of their beautiful, quirky produce. To date, Hungry Harvest has recovered over 150,000 pounds of produce from going to waste and has donated over 75,000 pounds to those in need in the community. Sign up for Hungry Harvest, and make a difference. You buy one, you give one. Another piece of their social mission is that they now hire men from a local homeless shelter to help them get back on their feet. So far, 7 homeless men have been hired from the shelter for part-time […]

US Vegweek April 20-26

FFL News - compassion over killing, vegan, vegetarian, vegweek - April 20, 2015

Our friends at Compassion Over Killing are promoting US VEGWEEK. Their campaign page explains the reasons: Kicking off near Earth Day, US VegWeek encourages people to explore the many benefits of vegetarian eating by taking the 7-Day VegPledge. Be healthy, save the environment, protect farmed animals, and eat a ton of tasty food! Food for Life Global fully supports this noble and innovative idea to help encourage people to get away from eating meat for at least one week for all the right reasons. And there are plenty of them, for example, US VEGWEEK is celebrated during the same week as Earth Day to highlight the positive impact a plant-based diet has on the environment. According to the US Dietary Advisory Committee’s 2015 report, a diet higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average US diet,” explained Congresswoman Gabbard. “As a lifelong vegetarian, I am proud to support US VegWeek and encourage others to take the 7-Day VegPledge. Centering your diet around plant-based foods also has a positive impact on our environment and improving public health,” she said. Congresswoman Gabbard is a practicing Vaisnava, a spiritual culture built on compassion for all animals, especially cows. The tradition promotes spiritual equality for all beings, as does Food for Life Global. Why is this a good thing? Taking a pledge to avoid meat and dairy for one week will have a tremendous impact on your life, what to speak of the live’s of animals and the planet. It has been well documented how much damage is caused to the environment by the factory farming of animals. Indeed, the livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth’s increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water pollution […]

FFL Affiliate partners with McCartney’s Meat-free Monday Campaign

FFL News, Get Involved - Colombia, Meat-free Monday, Paul McCartney, vegan, vegetarian - February 11, 2015

Paul McCartney is famous for his vegetarian advocacy, helping numerous non-profits get their message out, however, in 2009, Paul and his two daughter’s Mary and Stella decided to take their passion to the next level and launch a Meat-free Monday campaign across the United Kingdom. The campaign caught the attention of numerous Hollywood celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Keven Spacey, and Woody Harrelson, as well as food celebrity Jamie Oliver and Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. Nearly 1 million people have pledged to follow the campaign’s objective of a meat-free Monday. Juliana Castaneda Turner, founder of Juliana’s animal sanctuary has been a lifetime fan of McCartney and was pleasantly surprised when she got the approval to represent the campaign in Colombia. “My objective with this sanctuary is to teach people by example that all animals deserve love and respect and so representing the Meat-free Monday campaign fits perfectly with our education outreach plans,” she explained. The Plight of Farmed Animals The campaign sheds light on the fact that billions of animals are farmed and killed for meat each year. Most of them are raised in intensive factory farms, in cramped, overcrowded cages, sheds and pens. With no room to stretch limbs or wings and no access to daylight or fresh air, intensively reared animals are often diseased, injured and dying due to the unnatural conditions they are kept in. Farmed animals are subjected to mutilations such as having their beaks clipped, their teeth pulled out and their tails docked to stop them from pecking and wounding each other through boredom and frustration. All farmed animals end their lives with a brutal death at the slaughterhouse. Eating less meat is a compassionate step that helps prevent cruelty and suffering. Juliana’s Lifelong Passion to help Animals It has been more than 10 years […]

Food for Life in Ukraine – Even a war can’t stop us

FFL Emergency Relief, FFL News - conflict, emergency food relief, feeding children, Food for Life, Food Relief, prasadam, Ukraine, vegan, vegetarian - January 31, 2015

[youtube]http://youtu.be/KEssMsnSKcQ[/youtube] Food for Life Ukraine is battling against all odds to bring hope and healthy meals to victims of the current conflict. Volunteers are serving thousands of hot plant-based meals all over the region to needy families. [youtube]http://youtu.be/uDw4Uy2qx1g[/youtube] The above video is 3 days in the life of volunteers of Food for Life in Donetsk. The video highlights some of the places FFL volunteers are serving free meals: Monday and Thursday of Ilovaysk – 700 servings; Tuesday: Khartsyzk – 700 servings; Wednesday: village Kommunar -700 servings; Orehovo -150 servings; village Pastuhovka -150 servings. Volunteers also visit centers for pensioners and single disabled citizens in Kalinin, Kiev, Kuibyshev and Petrovsky. (Above) Some of the volunteers of the Food for Life Donetsk — a cohesive group filled with compassion for people, regardless of race, ethnicity, political or religious beliefs — for cold and hunger have no national boundaries! (Above) In early January, Food for Life Donetsk added a new member – Eugene. He came from Irkutsk to join the team. Here he is helping to serve hot food to villagers near Communar. Food for Life Volunteers from Lugansk, Ukraine opened a social dining room to provide hot meals to 155 people. Their tasty lunch consisted of pea soup, bread and semolina pudding. “The electricity went off before we could complete cooking the porridge and so our cooks thought not to serve it out, but the people demanded it, so we happily obliged,” explained one of the volunteers. Many people have expressed admiration for FFL’s soup. Many of them had no idea that vegetarian soup can be so delicious. Visit their website: https://vk.com/foodforlifedonetsk DONATE NOW VIA Western Union, PrivatMoney, Unistream, or CoinstarBeneficiary: STREBLYANSKIY SVYATOSLAV, Ukraine MakeevkaPhone + 38050-870-80-93 + 38093-399-13-98. To Support these noble efforts, you can also donate via Food for Life Global. Please indicate that this is for Food for Life Ukraine.

Food for Life Vrindavan latest documentary

FFL News - charity, Food for Life, Food Relief, India, malnutrition, poverty, prasadam, school children, vegetarian, Vrindavan - January 28, 2015

[youtube]http://youtu.be/eWEvWVDfvvs[/youtube] Made by Emmy award-winning producer Robyn Symon (http://symonproductions.com).Food for Life Vrindavan (FFLV) is a humanitarian aid organisation officially recognized by the Indian government and is one of the finest examples of Food for Life around the world. For the last ten years, FFLV has worked in the poorest villages in the Vrindavan area (120 Km south of New Delhi). serving million of healthy meals to children. Their free school for the poor now cares for 1500 + young girls providing them a full education, three meals a day and medical care. To support Food for Life Vrindavan, visit www.fflvrindavan.org

FFL volunteers spread love in Buenos Aires

FFL News - argentina, Buenos Aires, feeding homeless, Food Relief, vegetarian - September 23, 2014

Argentina is famous for its meat-centred cuisine and has the world’s second highest consumption rate of beef, with yearly consumption at 55 kg per head. In 2006, livestock farmers kept between 50 and 55 million head of cattle, mostly in the fertile pastures of the Pampas. The country is currently the third largest beef exporter in the world after Brazil and Australia. So it is certainly a “change of pace” to see plant-based cuisine being so welcomed in this country and from all counts, the general public absolutely love the experience. Food for Life has had a presence in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, for decades and their regular distribution of free plant-based meals to the homeless and the inquisitive has helped to open people’s minds to the potential of an all plant-based diet. Distribution takes place all around the city, but most often at the Plaza Miserere and Chacarita Station. The hundreds of freshly cooked plant-based meals served are always different but typically include curried vegetables, garden salads with vegan mayonnaise, fresh baked herb breads, oat truffles, carob coconut truffles, oatmeal raisin cookies and fresh lemonade. “Volunteers of the program are routinely recognized with FFL tshirts or aprons and every week more of them are signing up to help out,” said program spokesperon, Prema Rupa Madhava das. To learn more about FFL in Argentina and how to volunteer visit their Facebook page.

The teachings of Saint Francis are alive and well

FFL News - animal welfare, Chaitanya, killing animals, Saint Francis, spiritual equality, unity, vegan, vegetarian - September 18, 2014

There are basically two distinct schools of Christian thought: The Aristotelian-Thomistic school and the Augustinian-Franciscan school. The Aristotelian-Thomistic school teaches that animals are here for our pleasure—they have no independent purpose. We can eat them; torture them in laboratories – whatever we feel is necessary for our survival. Most modern Christians embrace this form of their religion. And sadly so do most people these days. We live in a very cruel and uncaring world, where animals are routinely slaughtered in the millions every day, with an estimated 150 BILLION being killed annually. The Augustinian-Franciscan school, however, teaches that all living beings are brothers and sisters under God’s fatherhood. This is similar to the teaching of the great saint Sri Chaitanya, revered as an incarnation of Krishna by the Vaisnava tradition. Like Saint Francis before him, he also spoke to animals and even danced with tigers in the Jarikanda forest of India. St. Francis felt a deep kinship with all of creation, addressing it as a “brother” or “sister,” firmly believing that everything came from the same creative Source. While Sri Chaitanya taught that all living beings are spiritually equal, but due to karma they appeared in one type of body or another for the time being. “All souls were evolving through different species,” he said. Saint Francis’ great compassion and respect for the animal world also manifest in his expression of hospitality during Christmas (1223): And on Christmas Eve, out of reverence for the Son of God, whom on that night the Virgin Mary placed in a manger between the ox and the ass, anyone having an ox or an ass is to feed it a generous portion of choice fodder. And, on Christmas Day, the rich are to give the poor the finest food in abundance. Indeed, St. Francis’ respect for […]

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