Krishna Brundavana Temple Convener Ramesh Rao had just finished his morning prayers when he received a call from the Australian Hindu Temples Council.
Highlights:
- Australian Hindu Temples Council arranged cooked meals for residents in Melbourne's public housing estates
- Hundreds of cooked meals prepared and delivered to the towers
- Australian African Association grateful for the kind gesture
“He told me that residents of housing estates need some freshly cooked meals as they were caught in lockdown because of a coronavirus surge in Melbourne,” Mr Rao told SBS Hindi.
Over the next few hours, the Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana Melbourne volunteers came together to cook fresh vegetarian meals to deliver it to families affected by hard lockdown in Flemington commission houses.
"Our temple is based on the ethos of food for all, our deity Krishna is established in the form of ‘Ann’ in the temple. We straight away said yes and within a few hours, a hundred boxes of ‘prasad’ (cooked meals) were ready to be taken to people in need," said Mr Rao.
Indian and African community organisations work closely to help and support each other but this was different and unprecedented, said Karthik Arasu, a member of the AHTC.
"Australian African Association contacted us and told us about concerns regarding food availability for around 3,000 residents of public housing estates," Mr Arasu told SBS Hindi.
The two groups decided delivering fresh meals was the best way to help the community in lockdown.
Nasa Ige, the President of the Australian African Association in Melbourne told SBS Hindi, “After consulting with the residents and Australian Hindu Temples Council we decided to serve free meals at the public housing towers."
Source: Supplied
"I thank them all, the Indian community, from bottom of my heart for helping us in this difficult time," said Mr Nasa.
Mr Rao has offered to help any member of the Indian community facing hardship.
"I request all members of the community, if you are facing difficulty to put food on the table for your family please don’t hesitate to contact Australian Hindu Temples Council. We are here to help," Mr Rao said.
Thousands of people across nine public housing towers in Melbourne were suddenly ushered into a hard lockdown on Saturday afternoon to contain new coronavirus clusters there.
The 3,000 residents in the Flemington and North Melbourne towers, many of whom are from migrant and refugee backgrounds, are not allowed to leave their buildings for any reason.
People across Australia have rallied together to offer extra assistance and raise money so non-profit organisations can provide targeted support.
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
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