Happy Spring from Mother's Kitchen Los Angeles!

Thank you to the Los Angeles Satsang for supporting Mother’s Kitchen!  We are doing our best to provide excellent food to our less fortunate neighbors 3-4 times per week at 10 different assistance programs.  Amma asks us to make sure nothing goes to waste and that our burritos and meals reach the most food-insecure in our community.  Amma also suggests we now look outside MACLA for funding and in-kind donations.  We welcome these challenges to improve our seva.  

 

Mother’s Kitchen is open to anyone who wants to participate, not just devotees.  In my experience we attract remarkable people,  even ones who cannot cook!  When I started volunteering for Mother’s Kitchen it was very simple.  I met Raduca and a few others at a Unitarian church kitchen to make 150 PB&J sandwiches every Wednesday night.  Sometimes we made a pot of veggie stew and then Raduca’s team would distribute the food the next day at a park in Santa Monica.  I dropped out when Raduca did but several years later I became a co-coordinator, faced with the intimidating prospect of cooking food for 150 in my small apartment kitchen every month.  We had 2 recipes:  spaghetti and chili.  Everything I cooked tasted like burned chili.  Once I made black beans that I thought were too soupy so I added uncooked rice.  The result was a purple paste that I was very embarrassed to bring to HOPE but to my surprise no one complained…  they genuinely enjoyed everything I made,  burnt or gloppy!  Just having a simple meal was a blessing to them and gratifying for me to prepare.  Luckily our other cooks have given me feedback, tips and recipes and I am very proud of the fresh, nutritious veggie dishes we serve to all our MK clients.

 

I continued to learn “on the job” as we started cooking and serving a meal once a month at the Downtown Women’s Center.  It is a life-changing experience to spend a few hours meeting the ladies of all stripes who are welcomed there.  We always have a photo of Amma on the table and seeing them interact with it is quite moving.  In the beginning we heard complaints about the lack of meat in our dishes and we had to explain what lentils were.  A couple months later the ladies were requesting their favorite lentil dishes…priceless!

 

Mother’s Kitchen has grown a lot since then thanks to our skillful cooks, shoppers, drivers, donors and team leaders who take on each project with integrity and love.  I hope some will share their experiences here.  My second-favorite thing after cooking for Mother’s Kitchen is hearing the many stories of grace this seva brings! 

 

Jill McGraw

 

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