Hare Khrisna food service under threat, as charity loses funding

Published: 10 June 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A FREE food service run by Hare Krishnas that provides nearly 1,000 hot meals a day for needy Westminster residents is facing a fight for survival.

Just days before chariots are set to ride through the West End for the annual Hare Krishna festival of Rathayatra, volunteers at the Food For All charity have claimed they are being hindered in their work by parking warden patrols.

They have also hit out at City Hall’s much publicised proposals to ban free food handouts in parts of Westminster.

Food For All director Peter O’Grady said: “The people we feed include pensioners, migrant workers who find themselves destitute, and plenty of ex-servicemen. We see a lot of Iraq War veterans who rely on us for a daily meal.”

He branded City Hall’s soup run by-law plan “ridiculous”.

A Westminster Council spokesman insisted that they wanted to work with the charity to provide food in a fixed location such as a community centre.

Councillor Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for adult services and health, has called food handouts “undignified” and said they serve to keep people on the streets longer.

Volunteers for Food For All, which operates around Westminster Cathedral, Soho and Bloomsbury, say wardens in neighbouring Camden and Islington have issued their vans with parking tickets even where they are pulled up in a quiet spot and are causing no obstruction.

In York Way, Camden, traffic wardens were sent to issue Food For All vans with tickets, Mr O’Grady claimed.

And taking up a position across the borough border has not helped.

Mr O’Grady added: “Islington have sent down two council workers and traffic wardens too.”

A Camden Council spokesman said: “If vehicles associated with the  Food For All charity are parked on the Camden side of York Way in a  location that doesn’t cause an obstruction to other road users, they will be given time to deliver food. 

“Any suggestion that Camden is attempting to drive them from the borough or issuing parking tickets to deter them from our roads is simply not true.”

To add to its woes, funding provided to the charity by London councils has been slashed by 100 per cent – from £29,000 a year to nothing.

Food For All is now searching for other sources of finance. Volunteers collect free food   from the King’s Cross health food specialist Marigold and from  supermarkets.

• Thousands of festival-goers, pilgrims, and Hare Krishna leaders from around the world will pull three 40ft high colourful chariots carrying the sacred deities of Lord Jagannatha, Lady Subhadra and Lord Balarama from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square on Sunday for the festival of Ratha-yatra. The procession starts at noon from Hyde Park, South Carriage Drive, and arrives at Trafalgar Square at 2.30pm.