Five days a week, the Krishna Food for Life Foundation distributes hot meals, bread, apples and yoghurt to needy people in the district, families with young children, people living below the minimum subsistence level and job seekers. This year they received the district's August Fischer Award on Social Work Day.
I was surprised that we received this honorary award, as there are many NGOs in the district, including those of national importance in social care, says Péterné Szilaj Szilaj, pastor Gandharvika Prema Dászi, a member of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. The temple of Krishna believers, present in Hungary since 1989, moved to Csillaghegy in 2005, in the building of the former school. They have offered to take over the social care of the needy in the district, so they are currently distributing 300 meals a day for three days in Békás and two days in Kaszásdűlő. The ever cheerful Krishna Csaran Das is getting the food van ready to go. He has been going out to distribute for years. With his easy-going but firm style, he manages to keep the huge crowds in order, says the pastor, as the 500-plus people waiting in Blaha Lujza Square every day sometimes cause difficult moments at the food distribution. He adds that the proportion of homeless people there is notably reduced compared to families with many children, pensioners or unemployed people waiting for food.
Krishna Charan Das helps with food distribution every weekday
For four years, Aunt Marika has been helping out in Star Mountain, where she is unpacking a whole bunch of tins. I'm actually homeless, although I don't sleep on the streets. I like the Krishnas, if I'm absent for a week, they ask if I'm sick. It's not just the tea, the slices of bread that do me good, I get so much love, I've never received so much in my life, she says, and her eyes fill with tears. I wash the dishes, clean up, whatever I have to do. I love doing it, and the thank you means a lot. People waiting for food arrive with a voucher from the family support worker, which indicates how many family members are entitled to food. Bread, yoghurt, apples for snack or breakfast with the cooked meal also helps. They are very nice and tidy. I've been coming here for a year, we are satisfied, says Mrs. István Molnár from Zápor Street. Also for a year, Tiborné Kiss from Kaszásdűlő, who is fostering her sick child, has been coming to both district locations, and now receives food from them 5 days a week, which she finds clean and delicious. János Jánosné Gergely, 79, has left Ófalu Hill, where she says she was promised that they would bring her up in the winter, when she would no longer be able to walk the steep, slippery path. I have four children. No other local authority gives this kind of help, the social services are very good, and here they treat people with kindness and kindness, says one mother. There are other people with small children in the queue, one of them asks not to be photographed. The Family Counselling and Child Protection Centre in Óbuda quickly collected 300 meals, which after Blaha meant a virtual doubling of the number of meals for the foundation. But you know, according to the family adviser, 1200 meals would be needed in our district alone!
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