Wholesome
Beneficial, clean, decent, edifying, ethical, good, health-giving, hygienic, invigorating, nice, nourishing, nutritious, pure, restorative, sane, strengthening, well, worthy
Garden Restaurant
Wholesome Bakery
Please contact us:
Wholesome Stores,
Sandipani Muni School
Burja Road, Chaitanya Vihar, Vrindavan, 2811221 U.P.
+91 983 730 2171
Food for Life Vrindavan - Serving the Poorest of the Poor
At five o’clock on any given day, should you happen to be wandering through the Chaitanya Vihar neighborhood of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s most impoverished states, you will come across a throng of unkempt boys and young men jostling each other and clamoring to get into a compound, which is guarded by a stern man who carries a stick and pushes them away when they attempt to get past him through the gate. What on earth, you might wonder, is he guarding so vigorously? And what is it that they seem to want so badly?
Look past him and you will see hundreds of girls, women and small children, sitting quietly in rows, inside the compound, with plates made of leaves on the ground before them, being served by respectful, well-groomed children in neat school uniforms and by adults who look like they should be sitting behind desks in one of New Delhi or Bangalore’s corporate offices. You don’t have to look closely to notice that these guests are the poorest of the poor, shoeless, wearing mismatched, ill-fitting torn and tattered clothes, with dust on faces and hair that has turned blonde as a result of chronic malnutrition.
The open area where they sit waiting for what may well be only the meal they’ll eat that day, is the playground of the Sandipani Muni School. Those serving them are the school’s students, young people who could just as easily have been among those with empty stomachs if good fortune hadn’t led them to the school’s gates just in time to be offered of the completely free school’s coveted places. These children, and the staff who serve with them, provide this service willingly, free of charge, every day of the year.
The food distribution program at the school is just one of the many ways in which the school’s parent organization, Food For Life Vrindavan, engages the community and cares for the impoverished residents of the town and surrounding villages.
