Food Distribution

Daily Distribution

For the last 20 years, FFLV kitchari distribution has helped countless children and women to satisfy their basic nutritional needs. The most needy and the most fragile have always been served by our kitchari distribution. A stew made form rice, high protein lentils, and vegetables, kitchari has all the nutrients and protein needed for a young body to grow.

Each day FFLV serves more than 700 plates of hot kitchari to needy children and women, and each Ekadashi, a fortnightly holy day in which grains are not eaten, fresh fruit and sweets are distributed instead.

Feeding the kids at Sandipani Muni School

We serve a breakfast of fruit & biscuits with milk for our 250 nursery and prep. children, and herbal ginger tea, fruit & biscuits for the 1,250 older children. Nutritious lunch with a variety of dishes is also daily served to SMS and SMSS’s 1,500 students.

FFLV’s kitchen is very modern and clean with expert cooks who change the menu from day to day with a variey of grains, beans, dairy products and a rainbow variety of veggies plus fully filtered R.O. drinking water used in the cooking as well as offered to the kids at meal time and at any time during study or play.

Lalli Feast

“Lalli” is an endearing village term for little girls. But unfortunately most girls are malnourished and suffering from anemia (deficiencies of zinc, iron and vitamin C.) Worse, even at such a young age, they bear the load of household chores. So we think the young girls deserve a special treat.

Therefore on a few occasions throughout the year we dedicate one to those 14 and younger. We feed them special vegetable dishes with puris (whole wheat fry-breads), and sweets plus nice gifts including combs, mirrors, and other essential educational or fun items.

Widows’ Feast

Old women whose husbands are deceased are truly destitute, generally having no family to support them. Therefore on a regular basis FFLV gives meals for these saintly ladies, honoring them with a banquet fit for a queen just to help compensate for an otherwise peasantry fare.

Sadhu Feast

These men in saffron robes are wandering ascetics or Sadhus. They are completely dependent on God’s will for their food. Food for Life regularly gives special meals to these old men.

Feast for the Blind Who Taste, Hear, and Feel the World

To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.

All a blind man needs is a hand that he can hold to traverse the path. The FFLV provides a helping hand in the form of a full meal for the 25 residents of Vrindavan’s ashram for the Blind every Wednesday.

Food for Families

Feeding people is a big part of what Food for Life Vrindavan does. We provide education to over 1000 children, but if you ask one of our children what they like most about school, most will probably say “The food!”

When you are running a school, it quickly becomes apparent that you cannot ask children to study if they are hungry. So, after finding out that some of our students were getting nothing for dinner, we introduced the Food for Families program. When sickness, unemployment or loss of the main breadwinner strikes a family, our Food for Families program is there to help them get through this hard time. By providing food rations for six months or one year FFLV makes it possible for families to pay off debts and get back on their feet. An additional benefit of the program is that it encourages families to stay in Vrindavan and keep their children in school instead of pulling them out and returning to their villages. Unfortunately, for their families survival is such a struggle that often their children’s nutritional needs are not a priority. For every Rs 850 donated to the program, a needy family receives enough food for one month. This includes 10kg of rice, 10kg of whole wheat flour, 4kg of sugar, 5kg of lentils and 1kg of oil.