Be a Mother to the World.
A Report by Jiřina Pokorná
When the first lockdown was announced in spring 2020, we had to cancel all pujas, courses and live events at the Kaleshwar Center Brno, and had no idea how things would progress. On the one hand, we had the feeling that our help is needed even more than before — even the city of Brno was calling on us to please continue with our feeding project — on the other hand, the income from which we were financing our feeding project has suddenly decreased significantly. What should we do? Baba proved himself to be a great director once again!
Thanks to the support of another organization, we got in touch with the Food Bank in Brno which led to our activities taking on a new angle, and one that gives us great pleasure. Babas feeding team continues to help around 160 people in need with cooking meals and the distribution of food every week — directly on the street in Brno and in a center for homeless people in Vlhká — and is now also rescuing food!
Every Saturday and Sunday we tour several Brno supermarkets, collecting food that although it’s perfectly fine, would be thrown away. We take our new food supplies to the Kaleshwar Center in a van loaded with lots of treasures — all kinds of pastries, vegetables, fruits, chocolates, sweets and long-lasting foods that will soon be near their expiration date. There are often very large quantities and yet everything is gone after the Sunday meeting — a lot goes straight into our large soup pot and other food and hygiene items are shared among homeless people, single mothers and other needy people.
On Saturday, April 24th, 2021, we took part in a nationwide ‘food rescue event’, in which volunteers approach customers in the supermarkets, requesting donations of food or hygiene items for people in need. This year we were at the shopping center for 10 hours and during this time we collected 803 kg of food and almost 20 kg of hygiene articles. We used two thirds of this in our Sunday cooking for the needy. We brought another 300 kg of pasta, rice, flour, sweets and children's hygiene items to the Brno Tafel, from where they are redistributed to other organizations that also take care of the sick and needy of all ages.
The fact that we were able to share with even more people, made us even happier with the success of the campaign. There was one more surprise in store for our supply redistribution, when we were able to pass on some of the items we had collected directly into the car of another aid organization, which had arrived during our handover to the Brno Food Bank. It turned out that we were delivering exactly the things that they urgently needed — which filled us with joy! Everything seemed to be flowing naturally and be somehow coordinated “from above”.
We are so happy that such large quantities of food are available for others every weekend at the Kaleshwar Center. The fact that we can share this abundance directly with others brings so much joy, quiet happiness and energy, for which we are very grateful. We are glad that we can join together for this project — even during the lockdowns — and we are infinitely grateful that Swami inspired us to do this. We feel so rich and remain incredibly curious to see how this story will continue!
Yours sincerely,
Babas Feeding Team Brno
Would you like to help
Although these activities mean that we have a lot of food available for cooking, there are still considerable costs for preparation and purchase (e.g. gas, petrol, fresh vegetables, rent for the center, etc.). Any donations would be heartfully appreciated! Please follow this link to make a donation supporting the Brno Kaleshwar Center’s charitable activities HERE.
