Being an occasional guide to the idiosyncrasies of SOAS Students’ Union
Interested about who, what and why there is a Hare Krishna food stall outside of SOAS every day. We asked them…
“Our food distribution rickshaw is outside the main entrance Mondays to Saturdays from 12pm – 1.30pm. Food is served by our volunteer, Prema-Harinama Dasa, who has been a monk for several years, and was previously a frontline medic in the former Yugoslavian warzone. Hot vegetarian meals are cooked each day, and are prepared from fresh healthy ingredients donated to us by supermarkets and wholesalers. These ingredients would have otherwise gone to landfill, although are perfectly good to use. Our service is therefore eco-friendly, and as we do not use meat, is karma-free as well. You can help us have even less environmental impact by BRINGING YOUR OWN PLATES/CONTAINERS AND CUTLERY!!
We provide this service for all members of the community, rich or poor, as part of our own spiritual practice. We also distribute meals to the homeless of Camden, to students of the LSE, and also at many protests and events in the city of London. We are hoping to open a food bank for students in the future. Almost 40% of fresh food gets thrown away in the UK, due to over-production, mis-management and “ugly” produce (over or under-sized produce, or which is the wrong shape or colour).
The meals are free of charge, although we are always happy to accept donations, of money, or even of clothes or other items which we can sell in our charity shop in Kings Cross. And if students are really keen to help out, we’d be delighted to welcome some new volunteers at the shop to help out there. You can contact us for further information or to offer help at foodforalluk@gmail.com. We also have a website with general information about what we do at www.foodforall.org.uk.”
