Food aid programme
raditionally, pilgrims visiting a temple will often bring food or other items as an offering to the Gods. These anonymous, voluntary donations are what sustain our community, and make it possible for us to cater for all our pilgrims. The offerings are brought into the temple and blessed, as part of the puja. The offering then takes on the heightened vibration of temple devotion and becomes blessed food, or ‘prasadam’.
It’s very important to understand that we never ask for anything from our pilgrims; there is no expectation for pilgrims to make offerings, and we never make suggestions, recommendations or infer the need of any item. To do so would break our vow of poverty and corrupt the purity of the offering. All offerings should be made as an expression of love, and as an act of worship – it should be a free and joyful experience, never tainted through pressure, guilt or duty.
We are fortunate to have more than enough food to meet both our own requirements and those of our visiting pilgrims. So much in fact, that for the last ten years or so, we have been able to donate our prasadam to charities, to redistribute to those in need. Our main charitable partnership is with Global Hearts for Children, to whom we donate an average of 60 tonnes of dried pulses, rice and flour every year. The food is sent to those in need in Sri Lanka, Liberia, Somaliland, Jordan, Guatemala, or anywhere else struck by famine or disaster.
Hunger is not just a problem in the developing world. Figures show that approximately 13 million people in the UK are living below the poverty line; many now struggle to feed themselves and their families. Redundancy, illness, benefit delay, domestic violence, debt, family breakdown and winter heating bills are just some of the reasons why people go hungry.
Community food banks throw a lifeline to people at crisis point. Frontline care professionals such as doctors and social workers identify people in dire need and issue a food voucher. Clients then receive three days of nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food in exchange for the voucher.
Every year we supply over 20 tonnes of prasadam to local and national food banks and social help centres. Our plan for 2012 is to greatly expand our storage facilities, so that, in addition to our own supplies, we can also store surplus supermarket food for re-distribution to a wide range of UK charities. Below is our current list of food aid partners:
Towy Community Church Foodbank – Carmarthen
Fare Share – Cymru
Fare Share – Bristol
Food Bank – Cardiff
Food Bank – Black Country
Kings Church – Newport
The Cyrenians – Swansea
MIND – Carmarthen and Llanelli
Women’s Aid – Carmarthen and Llanelli
If you would like to work with us either as a volunteer, a charitable partner, or a recipient, please get in touch. We’ll be very glad to hear from you.
