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Feeding the body and the soul
 Chris Rossi The Gazette Steve Szili of Aspen Hill, Food for Life's Potomac director and chef, stands in the Hare Krishna Temple in Potomac on July 27. Food for Life provides vegetarian meals to people all around the world, including the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda. |
''We believe when somebody cooks any food the person's conscience goes into the cooking," said Chaitanya Bhagavan Dasa, temple manager and head minister. ''It's not simply giving the food and satisfying one's hunger, it's also feeding the soul and satisfying the hunger the soul has."
Food for Life is one of at least 10 outreach projects at the temple. At least 50 percent of the congregation helps by cooking with Szili, helping him with events or donating money.
The Hare Krishna Temple in Potomac has approximately 7,000 members and is the only one in the Washington, D.C., area, with the closest temple in Baltimore.
''As members of the congregation get inspired they support different programs," Dasa said. ''There are people who donate money. There are people who bring supplies. There are people who bring time."
Food for Life was established by two Hare Krishna monks in 1974 after the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, saw children fighting with dogs over scraps of food in India, according to the organization's Web site. He then said that no one within a 10-mile radius of a Hare Krishna temple should be hungry.
Today, the organization distributes at least 1 million healthy vegetarian meals each day, according to Food for Life director Paul Turner. It has 20 programs in the United States as well as programs in 50 countries around the world, which include free food kitchens, emergency relief and educational programs in schools.
Members of the Potomac temple donate approximately $20,000 each year to buy the food, which is prepared in the temple's kitchen by Szili with the help of other temple members and students who need community service hours.
After preparing the food, Szili distributes it to the National Center for Children and Families, a Bethesda nonprofit that provides programs to help homeless families, victims of domestic violence and at-risk youth.
''I think they're fantastic," said Elise Goede, director of volunteer and in-kind resources at the center. ''It helps us as a not-for-profit. It also gives us an alternative for out clients; it lets them try something new. It's a healthy alternative."
Szili, an Aspen Hill resident, used to cook for the center every week. However, it is undergoing renovations and doesn't have a kitchen to store the food, but Szili still brings them deserts and prepares full meals for special events and holidays.
He uses his background as a cook at a pizza parlor and as the former owner of an international vegetarian restaurant, to make vegetarian food that isn't too strange or unidentifiable to the people who are eating it, he said.
For a Christmas dinner for 200 people at the National Center for Children and Families he made pasta primavera with tofu, salad, homemade bread and a dessert.
''It's not difficult with these people," he said. ''They were happy with whatever we brought."
Turner said that Food for Life workers try to cook food according to the local tastes. When providing relief to Hurricane Katrina survivors, volunteers made vegan chili and corn bread. When in Sri Lanka, volunteers made spicy vegetable curry and rice.
''We've never had any complaints," Goede said. ''[The food is] nothing out of the ordinary, kind of like comfort food with a healthy alternative edge to it."
Szili, 50, has been leading the Potomac program for seven years.
Besides cooking and distributing food to the Bethesda center, he also represents Food for Life at festivals and events, including the annual Potomac Day and most recently a vegetarian festival in Richmond, Va.
Szili also plans to begin an education program to teach students in Washington, D.C., schools about nutrition within the next year.
Hare Krishna is a faith that comes from India and is based on the ancient Vedic texts, which teach the purpose of human life, consciousness, the nature of the soul and God.
All meals distributed by Food for Life are vegetarian because Hare Krishnas believe that everything they cook and eat is an offering to God and that it also affects their spiritual consciousness and behavior.
They believe that every action leads to a reaction, so killing and eating animals leads to bad karma in a person's life.
''We feel strongly that by sharing pure food -- food that is cooked with love -- that you can impact people's consciousness," said Turner, a Takoma Park resident. ''Our founders said that by the liberal distribution of pure food our world can become more peaceful and prosperous."
However, Food for Life volunteers don't have to be Hare Krishna and come from all faiths and backgrounds.
''I think the thing that's the most interesting about Food for Life is people from all different faiths support it," Szili said. ''If anyone is sympathetic to human suffering it doesn't matter what religion you are. People can use Food for Life as a vehicle to help others."
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