Our mission is to provide food of adequate quality and quantity to people living in poverty, those who are unable to feed themselves and victims of natural disasters, in order to help reduce their disadvantages and prevent them from increasing.
because in our daily activities, our goal goes beyond filling our stomachs. As well as providing tangible help to individuals, we aim to improve the overall quality of life and eating habits of our society through mutual tolerance.
Our metropolitan public catering programme is available every weekday between noon and 1pm at Népliget, where we also provide packs of lunch and dinner food, bakery products, fruit, vegetables and non-perishable food. We distribute more than 8,000 parcels a year in Budapest, each worth between HUF 3,500 and 4,000.
In the framework of our family support programme, we provide lunch 5 days a week for 600 people in need in Óbuda, in cooperation with the Óbuda Family Counselling and Child Protection Centre.
The Municipal Council of Óbuda recognised our work with the Ágoston Fischer Óbuda Social Award and has been supporting it since 2011 through a cooperation agreement. Since November 2012, we have been operating our programme in Erzsébetváros, and since 2017 in Zugló with the support and cooperation of the local government.
It was in 1989 that the idea of organizing a food distribution in Hungary was first conceived in the hearts of a handful of followers of the then unknown church (Krishna Church). The initial difficult start was quickly followed by the feeding of hundreds of people. Damjanich Street, Tömő Street, Újpest Workers' Home, and then Blaha Lujza Square became the venues for regular lunch distribution. We were present at the latter site for about 22 years. The first Christmas food distributions started from there. A milestone for the mission was the year 1999, when the Meals for Life Charitable Foundation was founded.
The Blaha Lujza Square catering started with the evening winter tea distribution in the square, when word got out that the penniless people living on the streets were getting hot tea from our volunteers to keep them warm. Never before had they received such attention. Later, we saw that lunch rations should be distributed here too. Thanks to our constant presence and involvement, over time the word "food distribution" has become synonymous with the name of the Foundation and the festive food distribution, which is a city event. It wasn't just the Blaha. In the 2000s, we regularly fed young people on Student Island, who even now, years later, recall that they ate with us whenever they could. In 2011, we had to move from the square to Teleki Square, where we continued the main city food distribution in the City Grove and then in the Népliget, which is still running today.
Over the years, we have been counted on in national and international crises. We have helped victims of the Sri Lankan tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, the Bosnian floods, the earthquake in Turkey, as well as the floods in our own country and the red sludge disaster. Our efforts have not wavered as both waves of the pandemic have hit. We regularly delivered aid packages to city rescue stations and children's hospitals. We also provided a helping hand with non-perishable food following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Transcarpathia, and meals for medical students from India fleeing Ukraine. During the Hatay earthquake disaster in Turkey, four dedicated members of our team helped to feed those in need.
The biggest achievement for us in recent years is that in 2022 we managed to buy our own building in Budapest, thanks to donations from the public. After its renovation and refurbishment, the Budapest food distribution centre will be able to move to the new premises, which will allow the Foundation to have its own base.
We are Hungary's only vegetarian folk cuisine.
We serve food 6 days a week.
We are passionate about helping those without and connecting directly with them.
We work in a particularly clean kitchen, where cleanliness is sacrosanct.
food distributed so far
people can count on our help
kg of food saved
