Burrito Project at M.A.Center, LA
Our Accomplishments
It was in March 2014, two months after the MA Center LA opening, that a few sevites gathered at MA Center LA’s new commercial kitchen to make 50 burritos for the needy. This pilot project was launched because devotees were moved by recent articles documenting that Los Angeles has the largest chronic homeless population and the most children with food insecurity in the country. Devotees decided to honor Amma’s gift of a new kitchen by starting a new Mother’s Kitchen project to serve the needy. And so the Burrito Project was born. Now on the 2nd anniversary of the Burrito Project, we celebrate with joy and gratitude that volunteers ages 5 to 89 have produced and delivered a total of 90,000 burritos to the homeless and hungry in Los Angeles. We know that alone, we could never have made this happen. We see Amma’s hand helping us daily. She inspires us with Her love and compassion, makes the difficult possible, and brings the right people to solve our challenges. We see the magic of Her blessings and grace every week.
The Need
Los Angeles City has the highest number of chronically homeless, most living on the streets, in the nation. In Los Angeles County, 1.5 million do not have enough funds for sufficient food, and one in four children do not have enough food to eat. With so many homeless and hungry, Burrito Project is exploring how to expand our outreach.
How the Community Came together to help
The South Bay community has a longstanding commitment to community service. Some families have traditions of service spanning generations. The youth actively seek community service opportunities for their schools, clubs and personal commitments.
Parents are actively involved with their children’s volunteering, working side by side with their off springs. Entire families, sometimes with 3 generations, come to volunteer at the Burrito Project.
The Burrito Project sevites have witnessed the joy the youth experience while volunteering at the LA Center. Teams of youth work seamlessly and harmoniously on a myriad of tasks that comprise the Burrito Project experience. Volunteers share the desire to help those less fortunate in their community. .
Who are these volunteers?
One of the amazing developments as we grew is how actively the community has been involved and helped us succeed. The Beach Reporter, a local newspaper, has written articles on Burrito Project, local businesses have sent executives and employees to help, and a local non-profit volunteer center regularly refers other volunteer groups to us. Our project seems to be crossing all faiths, professions and ethnicities in its growth. We have found commonality in the desire to feed the hungry, and we do it together with a loving spirit. We have scout troops, National Charity League divisions, Kiwanis volunteers, high school honor groups and service groups, community college student group, church groups, YMCA youth volunteers, people who learned from friends, people coming with friends on their birthday to make burritos instead of having a party. One volunteer was an Uber driver who drove an enthusiastic sevite to the Center.
We have lawyers, doctors, even an airline pilot regularly coming to help. We have many teachers, nurses, and business people. We have people who head other local charities giving several hours a week.
Mothers of the youth volunteers come, saying they want to see what it is about Burrito Project that gets their teens out of bed and at the Center by 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday with smiles on their faces. They witness first hand their children working equally side by side with adults in shared tasks, enjoying the work, cheerfully chopping vegetables, wrapping burritos, packing lunches, mopping the floors and cleaning up at the end. Every mother, with an astounded expression, confides that this child has never worked this hard at home. We know these volunteers are bathed in Amma energy and joy. Burrito Project seva is blissful nectar for us all. One of the most amazing groups of volunteers comes from an organization that is one of our burrito recipients. These day laborers seek work at one of 4 LA Community Job Center sites. Their only earnings for the family are their daily wages. They have come to volunteer to express their gratitude and to give back for the many burritos and extra food we deliver to them. They have worked on the burrito lines and done yard maintenance around the Center.
Our success
Our success is attributed to the enthusiastic and growing participation by local community: Individuals, families, businesses and youth groups, as well as key members of the team, have contributed to the project’s success. MA Center LA is a community center in the way Amma has envisioned for our Center. Devotees work together with community members on every phase of planning, fund raising, and organizing. We have over 1300 individuals who have come to participate in prepping, making, packing and delivering burritos.
Our Vision and Philosophy
We adopted an open door philosophy, far different from other volunteer organizations in the area. Most charities require volunteers to sign up in advance online, and many charities qualify their volunteers. We decided to follow the “Amma model” and welcome all who come. Groups over 5 are asked to let us know they want to come a certain Saturday, but most volunteers come freely to participate in one of two Saturday morning shifts. They come again and again. We will have as few as 25 volunteers and as many as 80 on any one Saturday. By a miracle none of us can describe, there are important jobs for each volunteer to perform. We do not turn people away. When faced with an unexpectedly large number of volunteers, some have joined the maintenance team to vacuum or wash windows, help with weeding in the garden, and with a Green Friends Beach Cleanup. Volunteers have been willing to do any job assigned. We have never needed to close the doors to volunteers. We are often told we are the favorite place in the South Bay to volunteer. As our volunteer base keeps growing, we are working hard to develop more opportunities for volunteering. More Green Friends collaboration projects are being planned.
Who Else Do We Serve?
Our volunteers deliver the burritos, with some receiving lunch bags of juice boxes, carrot sticks, chips, and pastries, to 15 shelters, after school programs and the Day Laborers Program. The bags are artfully decorated by younger volunteers with drawings and cheerful messages. The pastries are donated by a local gourmet bakery. The healthy rice and bean chips are donated by the owner and shipped to us weekly.
The shelters house homeless women, families with young children, individuals with mental health and addiction disorders, victims of domestic violence, runaway teens, and troubled veterans. One non-profit receives and distributes 300 BP burritos weekly to the homeless on Venice Beach.
What are Our Challenges?
Amma asked the Burrito Project to develop an understanding of the underlying problems and challenges that led our burrito recipients to homelessness. She asked us to provide not only food, but to also offer additional services that will help support and empower the individuals and families to achieve a better life. The Burrito Project team is following Amma’s direction and is exploring some pilot service projects.
Amma has also asked us to find food donations and community donors. We need to find more stable methods of fund raising. That is our goal for 2016, and with Her continued blessing on the Burrito Project, this mountain will be scaled like all our other challenges. Thank you in advance, Amma, for those who will come forward to keep us growing and giving!