Hindu Temple Community Kitchen Fund
Donate crypto to this religion & faith-based giving cause in India. We accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and six other coins, with no platform fee.
Funds freshly cooked vegetarian meals from large central kitchens, mainly for schoolchildren, carrying forward the long-standing Hindu practice of giving free food to anyone in need.
Why this matters in India
Feeding visitors without charge, known as anna daan, is one of the oldest forms of giving in Hindu practice, and large temples such as Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh serve free meals to thousands of pilgrims a day. Yet the people who most need a free meal are often nowhere near a temple kitchen: daily-wage laborers between jobs, migrant families in city settlements, elderly people living alone and children who arrive at school hungry.
Government schemes cover part of this need. The public distribution system supplies subsidized grain to ration-card holders, and the PM POSHAN program funds cooked lunches in government schools. But migrants often lack a local ration card, rations provide grain rather than cooked food, and cooking costs, cooks' wages and kitchen upkeep for school meals are frequently underfunded. Faith-based kitchens that cook at scale help close that gap, turning the old practice of free food into a daily meal that families can count on.
What your gift pays for
- Rice, lentils, vegetables and cooking oil for freshly cooked vegetarian meals served each day
- Fuel, cooks' wages and hygiene supplies for large central kitchens
- Insulated containers and delivery vehicles that bring hot food to schools and community distribution points
- Maintenance of kitchen equipment, from steam cookers to grain-cleaning machines
Organization
ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (Annamrita) · India
NGO Darpan (NITI Aayog), India · No. MH/2017/0118373
Founded 2004 · Headquarters: Mumbai
Runs the Annamrita programme serving free cooked meals, largely midday meals for schoolchildren, across India.
How they work: Annamrita cooks in large centralized kitchens, using steam-based equipment, and trucks the food to schools and community sites the same morning. Much of its scale comes from acting as an implementing partner for the government's school meal scheme, with public funds covering part of each meal and donations covering the rest. Meals are vegetarian and prepared as prasadam, food first offered in devotion, in keeping with ISKCON practice.
Track record: By February 2014 it had served 1.25 billion meals, producing over 1.2 million meals a day for 5,912 schools across 20 locations in 8 Indian states.
✓ Verified by our team on 1 February 2021
Giving in India
Scale defines the causes listed for India, which accounts for roughly 25 percent of global TB cases. One fund supports community TB treatment points and adherence support; others address falling groundwater, monsoon floods, degraded watersheds and irrigation for smallholder cooperatives. Social causes reach children living on city streets and workers held in debt bondage, and a central-kitchen fund carries forward the long-standing Hindu practice of giving free food, serving mainly schoolchildren. Partners include Operation ASHA, WaterAid India and International Justice Mission.
8 causes are listed in India, each with its own verified organization. $439,066 has been distributed to causes in India since 2021.
Our guide to giving in India · all 8 causes
भारत में क्रिप्टो दान: 8 सत्यापित कार्यों में सहयोग करें
Read the guide and compare causes →
See all Religion & Faith-Based Giving causes and how we choose them →
How your gift reaches this cause
- You send crypto to DonateCrypto’s verified wallet for the coin you choose. No platform fee is taken; blockchain network fees still apply.
- Your transaction ID ties the gift to this cause. Our team checks it on the blockchain and emails your official receipt once it’s confirmed.
- We then convert the funds for this cause and send them to ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (Annamrita), the organization named above, by bank transfer to its registered bank account, within 24 hours of confirming your donation.
- Every cause is reviewed before it’s listed — see how we vet causes.
- DonateCrypto is a program of Global Relief Group, a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so gifts may be tax-deductible for US donors.