By Amy Hollis Krishna House Gainesville Florida
“Can I bug you for 5 minutes?” is not the best opener for distributing a book. But it works well when I approach students at Krishna Lunch on campus at the University of Florida, because I’m not there to praise the glories of Lord Krishna–the students do it themselves.
Two or three times a week, I take a break from serving Krishna Lunch prasad and approach a student who is enjoying their Krishna Lunch. Camera phone in hand, I take their picture and record our five minute conversation as I ask them, “When was the first time you had Krishna Lunch?” or, “Why do you come every day?” or, “What do your friends think of it?” And then I listen as they praise Krishna’s remnants, usually having to stop them when they’ve gone on too long.
“Do you guys have someone in the back there, in the kitchen, just making sure all the flavors go together? Because sometimes I get a piece of halava in my eggplant and I think- oh this is going to be bad. But it’s not. It’s great! It’s even better than it was at first!”
Each photo and quote is posted to Facebook and shared among the greater university community. The project, modeled after a similar photography blog called Humans of New York, is helping raise awareness and resources for Krishna Lunch Forever, a fundraising campaign for renovating the Plaza of the Americas, where Krishna Lunch has been served since 1971. Hundreds of thousands of UF students have taken prasadam on the Plaza over the past four decades and now, Krishna Lunch is teaming up with the UF Foundation for the Plaza’s renovation. Because of Krishna Lunch Forever’s involvement, the renovation will include a new corridor named after Krishna Lunch and a commemorative plaque, marking the site of Srila Prabhupada’s visit in 1971.
The Humans of Krishna Lunch project has not only raised awareness for the renovation, but has also begun to unite the Krishna Lunch community on campus. Each conversation leaves me feeling incredibly inspired. Hearing these students explain how Krishna Lunch helped them become vegetarians or how they “just can’t understand why it tastes so good” reminds me of the amazing power of prasadam and why we’re doing this service in the first place.
“So, you’re pretty much only eating Krishna Lunch?” I said to a graduate student last week. “Oh that’s all I eat! Literally! If they cut me open all they’re going to see is subji, vegetable balls, and lettuce. The dressing is going to pour out with some lemonade. That’s it. That’s it.”
That’s it. Just Krishna’s mercy.
“Thanks,” I said to him, “You’ve made your point.”