Christmas Love Feast – Thousands of families rely on help in the present times of crisis.

Food for Life Hungary, the humanitarian aid arm of ISKCON Hungary has organised food distribution events all over the country on a daily basis for the last thirty years. Although the present difficult economic situation affects the content of aid parcels and the number of portions is also affected, the devotees do not give up and will organise the Grand Christmas Love Feast this festive season as well.

Every charity and social care organisation faces a challenge from the energy crisis and food inflation. According to the report of the National Bank of Hungary, the price increases of food items have not reached their peak yet. The aid organisations are struggling as although people continue to want to donate, their capacity is dwindling. This is also shown by the results of the largest food collection initiative in Hungary, in which Food for also took part. Those who continue to donate in spite of the difficulties deserve the greatest respect.

The queue of needy in front of Food for Life Center

The Christmas Love Feast has a message. Stopping organising it would mean that we give in to the difficulties and give up our duty. Is there a crisis? Well, it is one more reason to find the means and go ahead with the festive distribution against all odds!– says Bhakta Vatsala dasa, the chairman of the Food for Life Foundation.

The devotees distribute a daily amount of 3000 food plates for the needy large families, the elderly, the jobless, and the sick in Hungary. The need is going to mount. An increasing number of people in the queue are those who still have an income, and can still pay for their bills, but after having paid for the utilities, medicines, the rent, they are left without the means to buy enough food for their families.

Hundreds of liters of food is being prepared in FFL kitchens all over Hungary every day

The Food for Life Charity Program played an important role during the COVID pandemic in helping people who suddenly lost their livelihood and now, at the time of the conflict in Ukraine, they have played a key role in feeding the refugees from Ukraine. They also helped the food relief program of the devotees in Ukraine, by sending foodstuffs to the parts of Ukraine bordering Hungary from where the devotees further the cooking ingredients to other parts of Ukraine.

Food parcel given by FFL as a Christmas present for the needy

In the autumn of 2022, the energy and food crises started to bite. The hiking prices represent a huge challenge for the aid services. For instance, Food for Life alone has had to pay 12.000 USD more just for petrol for the trucks this year. However, saving foodstuffs from being discarded and distributing the prepared food is impossible without trucks. Although they cook in their large-scale kitchen for needy people, the foundation cannot avail of the capped prices reserved for individual citizens, they have to pay inflated prices for the flour or cooking oil used. Some of the ingredients underwent a price hike of over 100 percent during the last few months. Sour cream, which is an important ingredient of Hungarian-style pottages, has become a luxury now and can be used exclusively because of the kindness of donors. It must be mentioned also, that some enterprises that used to assist FFL in the past have gone out of business because of the crisis and can no longer support food distribution.

Bhakta Vatsala Dasa, the chairman of FFL Hungary

As Food for Life Foundation is performing a public service, it can avail of a normative government subsidy which is USD 0.7 per portion. Even in a large-scale, efficient kitchen, the ingredients for a portion of cooked food require at least double that amount, USD 1.3-1.5. The add-ons to the plate of cooked food like bakery items, raw vegetables, fruit, and the like come from supermarkets where items near the end of their shelf life are donated to charities. This resource of food is also important from the point of view of environmental protection, however sorting, transporting, and storing them required additional resources. The charity has to find the means to buy the cooking ingredients going into the Christmas aid parcel itself.

We had to completely reconsider the food parcel distribution during the festive season. We can only purchase the so-called capped-price ingredients at full market price, therefore this year we will include other useful and healthy items in the parcel, like rice, canned food, pickles, etc. We are very thankful to some of our donors who offer large quantities of basic ingredients or delicacies. Financial contributions are also very helpful!” – says Bhakta Vatsala dasa.

The special food distribution events this year started on 3rd December, were held in 8 different locations of the country, and will end on 26th December in Budapest. In total, Food for Life Hungary will distribute about 6000 portions of cooked food and 4500 parcels among the needy during the festive season.

Group of volunteers after food distribution in Budapest, Hungary

We will again spend our time at Christmas on the street, just as we did in the last 30 years. Gandharvika Prema, the spokesperson of ISKCON Hungary says „We understand from the many messages asking for help that there is a surge of people who still have a kind of basic livelihood, but they need our help, especially in the countryside. For instance, our branch at Eger has been receiving a flood of people asking for aid in the last 4 months. Natural shame should be quickly set aside when trouble comes and one should immediately contact the aid organisations or come to a point of contact. In such a crisis, only large-scale solidarity can help. If you meet a person who needs help, please direct them to Hare Krishna food distribution so that they know that they can rely on the devotees this year as well as always.”

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We know that however great feeling it is, helping others requires some renunciation. Let us help out a family or en elderly at Christmas time. Our philosophy comes from an ancient Hungarian motto: Where two can eat heartily, a third one can also eat.” Please donate here: https://karitativ.hu/en/main/