As a worldwide church, we consider it our duty to help our fellow human beings in a charitable way, in addition to the theoretical and practical presentation of Eastern religious philosophy.

The Krishna Devotees' Humanitarian Programme was founded in 1974 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada when he noticed small children fighting for lunch scraps behind the temple in MáyaÁpur. Since compassion is a fundamental moral principle of the Vasinava world religion, Prabhupada then asked his disciples to take responsibility for solving the food problems of the needy and to ensure that there were no hungry people within a ten-kilometre radius of Krishna temples around the world. Let the whole world come, we will feed everyone!" he said.

Krishna devotees around the world welcome guests at their public food distributions. Food for Life (FFL), an international programme that has grown rapidly, has now distributed more than 100 million meals to the destitute on 6 continents, in more than 60 countries, with the help of 1000 volunteers over the decades. It runs and operates soup kitchens, mobile kitchens, food delivery services and many other activities worldwide, providing more than 100,000 meals a day.

Krishna devotees are also helping the affected people in the disaster-stricken areas. This happened in the mid-1990s in Grozny and Sarajevo, where devotees risked their lives to help citizens. In 1997, floods hit both the Polish and Czech capitals, providing another opportunity for our volunteers there. Our mission volunteers set up a temporary hospital and food distribution tents on the site. During the fighting in Akbazia, monks often delivered hot porridge to the population in life-threatening conditions. The tsunami of 2006, the devastation in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan in 2010, and many more domestic calamities are all events that touch and move the masses of our volunteers. All these and our domestic activities are reported in detail in the following pages.