Diwali Food Bank Drive: Collective Effort by the Hindus of Greater Houston

HGH Food Bank Drive: Delivered $8000 and 2000 lbs Food.

 By Dr. Venugopal Menon

HOUSTON: The several temples and organizations of Houston under the banner of the Hindus of Greater Houston donated about 2000 pounds of food and $8000 in cash to the Houston Food Bank, thus collectively joining hands and showing a combined presence of Hindus in the city.  Arya Samaj took the leadership as they have done during the past several years by gathering the major share of the contribution.

Sri Meenakshi Temple, Mahatma Gandhi Library, Preksha Meditation Center, VPSS, Chinmaya Mission and Ashtalakshmi temple were the other main participants. Each organization requested their members to donate, kept boxes for them to drop off food items and offer monetary contributions.  The collected food and cash were delivered through Arya Samaj or directly to the Food Bank. Sewa International was equally part of this collective effort as their 29 volunteers provided  58 hours of volunteer service at the Houston Food Bank .

Anshuman Desai was the coordinator, who organized the details of operation and guided the various units through their respective volunteers.  It was decided that instead of acting separately, the Hindus of Houston should organize the efforts and help the noble cause as a unified body.

And there is no better time to feed the hungry and help the needy than Diwali.  With more enhanced and organized efforts we can gradually and substantially improve our contributions in the coming years.  It is important that Hindus stay organized and be recognized as one group for our belief and the profound principles that we believe in.  As the third largest practiced faith group, such efforts will help establish our presence in the community and bring in more awareness and understanding of us.