The Hungarian Food for Life Foundation was founded by the Hungarian Society for Krishna-Consciousness as the charity arm of the religious community, although the food distribution had been going on continuously since the official acknowledgement of the Society in 1989. The purpose of the programme is assisting the needy through the distribution of free meals, the eradication of hunger and insufficient nutrition. The programme also endeavours to help needy families, small children, the elderly, the chronic ill and the jobless in rural regions as well. The intention is to uplift people by giving them healthy, vegetarian, therefore non-violent, food.
The origins of the programme go back to the 1960s. On one occasion, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement which promotes non-violence and peace, Srila Prabhupada, saw some children who were scavenging the garbage for food in Calcutta. Having seen this, he requested his followers to make sure that no one goes hungry within a 10 mile radius of the Krishna-centres. His disciples and followers faithfully follow his mission according to his request.
Since its inception, the Food for Life Programme (FFL) has grown to distribute an annual 4 billion portions of cooked food in 60 countries of the world among the needy. A plate of food is distributed every second to someone in need. By now, FFL has grown to be the largest vegetarian food distribution organisation in the world, which provides help on an everday basis as well as assisting the calamity stricken in case of natural disasters and industrial catastrophes. In India, one subprogramme called Annamrita provides daily meals for 1.2 million schoolchildren!
Food for Life Foundation is serving the Hungarian society by distributing an annual half a million meals and about 500 tonnes of durable food. Our programme is present at 7 locations in Hungary, with 21 points of distribution, serving meals daily or weekly. Of that, in the capital city of Budapest we distribute about two thousand lunch meals daily. Four times a year we organise a special food distribution event which see the distribution of durable food parcels as well as cooked food for 800 to 1,600 people. The standard staff of the distribution is complemented by about 600 volunteers, among them, celebrities, athletes, actors, public figures as well as doctors, IT specialists, or entrepreneurs.
Our organisation endeavours to provide care with depth, taking into account the regional and seasonal needs. Besides operating large scale kitchens, acquiring transport vehicles to deliver food, the extension of cooking capacity and area of activities are also of high priority. We percieve a great need for our help also in rural areas.
Our amibition is to help keep needy families together, to help large families and the elderly, also in cooperation with the social care arms of the local governments, the family assitance services, also, in the countryside, cooperating with the family care institutions like temporary family homes.
All children have a right to a proper childhood. Our guests include inhabitants of children’s homes, transitory family homes and children’s camps. We cater for students in the elementary shoold and secondary schools by providing cultural programmes, toys, food, school supplies and food for them, and we also participate in providing healthy food to higher education students. We distribute food 6 times a week in 10 units of the Budapest Methodological Centre for Social Care.
Social integration, the daily care for the homeless is of high priority for us, therefore we provide food for those availng of the health care and daily care centres.
High on our list of priorities is the assistance for rural people stricken by deep poverty. Our programme „Like a bit of bread” endeavours to give hope for those living in undeprivileged areas. As circumstances allow, we visit 20 small settlements each year.
We organise food distribution in case of natural or industrial disasters within and outside of, Hungary. We provided help during the COVID epidemic, the migration crisis, not only for the disaster stricken population but also for those participating in the emergency relief like the military, the fire brigade, doctors and ambulance staff.
We combine caring for the needy with trying to protect the planet and the environment. In cooperation with the Hungarian Association of Food Banks we rescue an annual amount of 142 metric tons of consumable greengroceries, fruit, bakery and durable food from being destroyed while such basic food is missing from the tables of tens of thousands of people. In money terms, this has a value of 126 million HUF.
Account number: 10300002-10631840-49020019
Account holder: Ételt az Életért Alapítvány (Food for Life Foundation)
Address of account holder: 1039 Budapest, Lehel u. 15-17.
Account kept by: MKB Bank Zrt.
IBAN number: HU55-1030-0002-1063-1840-4902-0019
BIC/SWIFT code: MKKB HU HB
Telephone donations: 13600/33 (code should be given after the call is answered) at HUF 500 per call
The foundation is eligible to receive one per cent of the Personal Income Tax.
Tax file number: 18095575-1-41
The maintainer church can also receive one per cent:
Hungarian Society for Krishna-Consiousness (Magyarországi Krisna-tudatú Hívők Közössége)
Technical code: 0389
Food for Life Public Benefit Foundation (Ételt az Életért Közhasznú Alapítvány)
1039 Budapest, Lehel u. 15-17.
Telephone: (+361) 274-6-247, (+3630) 601-0011, (+3630) 678-3217
The members of the food distribution mission got up early. The temperature falls to 2 degrees during the night, starting the cooking cauldrons and the work was outright pleasant. Acting on the recommendation of the military, our food distributors set up camp south of Antakya, in a suburb, as in more central locations violence is […]
