In 2014, ISKCON Seattle started a novel way of reaching out to the homeless through “burrito sankirtan”. Every Saturday, the devotees go to University of Washington (UW) area and distribute hot burrito prasad along with kirtan and book distribution. The program attracts the homeless and UW students alike. The efforts from the burrito sankirtan have grown further now. The temple acquired a food truck in 2016, which goes out every Saturday and serve out hot prasad for free, along with kirtan and book distribution. The article is from one of the visitors to the food truck who also made a trip to the  Krishna temple.

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I usually can’t remember something I ate more than seven years ago (unless it made me throw up or something). But I still remember that burrito wrapped in tinfoil. A Hare Krishna handed it to me on the Ave back when I was in college. “For you,” was all he said, silently waving away my offers to give it back. He went back to chanting.

“I wouldn’t eat that,” my friend warned me. Well, the Hare Krishna didn’t give it to him. I unwrapped the foil.

Wow.

It was really good: rice, potatoes, curry, ghee.

I think about that burrito more than any other single item of food I’ve eaten. It was so good, I read the pamphlet he gave me along with it: Easy Journey to Other Planets. Hare Krishnas (they are officially known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or ISKCON) are religiously opposed to space exploration, believing that money would be better spent supplying the entire world with quality vegetarian food.

Although the pamphlet originally came out in 1970 (to protest the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union), now that Jeff Bezos is using space exploration as a justification for destroying Seattle, the pamphlet is weirdly locally relevant. The amount of free food that the Hare Krishnas give out each Saturday in the University District from their Free Vegetarian Food Truck gives a taste of what a difference could be made if Elon Musk spent his money on feeding humanity instead of launching a Tesla into orbit.

Read more: https://www.thestranger.com/features/2019/11/20/42044879/free-food-worthy-of-the-gods