{"id":64311,"date":"2018-07-11T12:52:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T10:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=64311"},"modified":"2018-07-11T12:52:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T10:52:31","slug":"food-for-all-initiative-coventry-united-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=64311","title":{"rendered":"Food For All initiative – Coventry, United Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food For All Coventry \u2013 What is it and what is the philosophy behind it?<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Salonee Banerjee: I first started volunteering at Food For All (FFA) Coventry, United Kingdom in February of 2018, and honestly, it has been so on and off. In the midst of all the university commitments, it was almost impossible for me to go every Monday. But that has never been a problem, everybody is so understanding and passionate about serving others, we are only here to achieve our one collective goal- to serve as many people as we can, with the highest level of consciousness we can achieve.
\nFood For All is inspired by HDG Srila Prabhupada\u2019s philosophy of unifying the community by doing \u2018seva\u2019 or service. This initiative was in conjunction with Srila Prabhupada founding the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1974. He believed in providing and encouraging a fresh, karma-free diet to anybody that is needy of nourishment, which is the philosophy FFA firmly stands by. Everybody is welcome with open arms here regardless of race, religion, social class or any hierarchy that divides us. In London alone, Food For All has been serving wholesome vegetarian meals for over 24 years on a daily basis, absolutely free of charge. It is only recently that FFA has started doing the same in Coventry, thanks to Rasaraja Gaur Gopal and all the generous volunteers working day in and day out to make it work.<\/p>\n

It all began for Rasaraja Gaur Gopal when he was in America doing guided meditation that focused on giving back to our community. It was something he deeply resonated with and he was determined to bring Food For All to Coventry. The idea is simple, it is to extend the philosophy of HDG Srila Prabhupada to benefit the local community. In Janurary 2018 Food For All finally made its debut in Coventry at the Coventry University campus, an area bustling with university students and other residents of Coventry. It is now done every Monday, but the preparations start from the weekend. There is bulk shopping and bulk cooking that goes on behind the scenes to put on a successful event like that. The rituals start all the way at 5 am on a Monday morning when the cooks meditate before cooking to reach the right level of consciousness. An aspect of the Vedic philosophy of food is that food affects our consciousness just like watching the TV affects the way we think. Meditating before cooking therefore allows the cooks to prepare food not just for the body but also the intellect and soul. Around 8:30am cooking is commenced in an Industrial Unit for catering where Rasaraja, Vilasini, Mayur and Damodhara are the main cooks. The food is then transported to site to be served to anyone and everyone.
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\nFast forward to 7 months from where it all started, here we are now, at the beginning of July, and Food For All Coventry has served, in total, over 5000 delicious hot meals and counting. It is such a delight not just for the passers-by but for us, the volunteers, to be a part of such a generous and fulfilling initiative that celebrates the community spirit of Coventry. Your support and well-wishes can help all of us continue and expand this event to benefit more people. Come along on Mondays from 12-2pm with your friends and loved ones outside the Hub (opposite the Richard Crossman building) and enjoy a free spiritually-enriched meal at Food For All. You can also get involved by volunteering and helping out for a great cause!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Hare Fast forward to 7 months from where it all started, here we are now, at the beginning of July, and Food For All Coventry has served, in total, over 5000 delicious hot meals and counting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64313,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64311\/revisions\/64313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}