By Madhava Smullen
The Food For Life branch in New Jagannath Puri at ISKCON of Phoenix, South Africa – a suburb of Durban – relaunched on August 9th by preparing 108 pots of Biryani, a rice dish with vegetables. As the sun rose in the early morning, the impressive operation saw devotees cooking outside over multiple rows of wood fires against the backdrop of the New Jagannath Puri temple.
Food For Life’s distribution partner network of religious organizations of all faiths then distributed an incredible 21,600 meals to the needy in the local community. The effort took place on the occasion of National Women’s Day, an annual public holiday in South Africa.
“We had pre-packed all the food ingredients the day before, on Sunday, so that it would be a much smoother exercise on Monday morning,” says ISKCON Phoenix temple president Prabhanu Das. “We had ten pots allocated to a group of devotees, and all they had to do was put the ingredients given to them in the pots, and make sure that everything was properly cooked. We started at 4:30 in the morning, and finished cooking at around 10:00am.”
Various faith partners and non-profit organizations then distributed the meals to the needy in communities some 40 kilometers to the South of the temple, as well as 25 kilometers to the North. In addition, three to four thousand meals were distributed at the temple itself. Covid precautions such as masks and sanitization were used throughout the preparation and distribution efforts.
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