Local Hindu youth group donates 400 meals to those in need

Diwali meal program returns to Cambridge As Diwali festivities quickly approach, members of the Hindu community stepped up for those in needs. CTV’s Tyler Kelaher reports.

For the fourth year, high schools students with the Radha Krishna Mandir and Cultural Centre (RKMCC) youth group prepared and donated more than 400 meals to local organizations.

“We get to give back to the community, to give back to people who don’t have what we do,” said 15-year old Avani Jatindranauth. “It’s very nice to be able to cook and have fun, but also give back.”

“We started this morning at 9 o’clock, started everything from scratch. They’re so into it so they want to do it from scratch themselves,” added Prakash Narine, the outreach coordinator with RKMCC.

Meals featuring fried rice, noodles, salad and rice pudding were shipped to The Bridges shelter in Cambridge, as well as OneROOF Youth Services and The Working Centre in Kitchener.

“I think that’s probably one of the greatest things that youth can do, and not only that, I hope they take it into their adult years,” said Moe Vidotto with The Bridges. “We are a non-for-profit, we rely on donations from the community. We’ve been full here at the shelter pretty well the whole fall.”

Meals are also being delivered to the Victoria Street homeless encampment in Kitchener.

The initiative ties in with Diwali celebrations, the Festival of Lights opens next Sunday.

“During this time we like to do something called selfless service, also known as seva,” said 14-year-old Jhanavi Jatindranauth of RKMCC’s youth group.

“Diwali is a time of celebration. It’s a lot about sharing and it’s festivities with a lot of food and sweets and all that good stuff,” explained Narine. “They realize that there are some people out there that are not as fortunate and that their purpose in trying to make sure they can share that spirit with somebody as well.”

The RKMCC outreach group also runs a food drive to help support the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. Non-perishable vegetarian items can be dropped off at the temple, located at 67 Old Mill Road in Cambridge.