Our Motto: Service to Beings is Service to God.
The Vedanta Centre in Springfield Lakes is a non-profit spiritual organization and branch of the Ramakrishna Order founded in the late 19th century India. The Vedanta Centre strives to facilitate individual spiritual growth and service to the society through benevolent activities like free food relief, activities for children & youth, yoga, meditation, workshops and volunteer opportunities. The Centre in Springfield Lakes has a café &soup kitchen, community garden, bookshop & function hall.
Monk in Charge of the Vedanta Centre Brisbane, Swami Atmeshananda reflects, “In 2013, I had seen news reports about lack of proper food experienced by elderly and needy. The first food relief in the Ramakrishna order was organized by Sri Ramakrishna himself on his way to pilgrimage when he saw starving people by the roadside. He sat amongst their midst and vowed not to leave them until food and clothing was organized for them.
Swami Vivekananda says “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!”
When this building in Springfeld Lakes was designed, we kept a provision for a commercial kitchen. We started the food relief programme here in July 2020 which coincided with the Covid pandemic.”
Stage 1 of the commercial kitchen was completed in June 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This cafeteria/kiosk kitchen with commercial license enabled volunteers of the Centre to start the Vedanta Soup Kitchen which would provide free meals to the community.
Stage 2 of the commercial kitchen, which is the fit-out of a larger internal kitchen,was inaugurated on Saturday 30th July 2022.This purpose-built facility together with the existing cafeteria kitchen will enable us to expand our food assistance programmes.
Vedanta Soup Kitchen
The Vedanta Soup Kitchen prepares wholesome vegetarian meals. Volunteers plan, cook and pack the meals. Approximately 450 free meals are distributed every month. Since we started the Vedanta Soup Kitchen in July 2020, more than 10,000 free meals have been provided to people in need.
We have worked with a number of other organizations by supplying them frozen meals: Westside Community Care (Camira), Goodna Street Life, The Base Youth Services, Youth Justie Ipswich, QLD Youth and Families Support Services, The Breakfast Club Redcliffe and SOP Gold Coast.
The Vedanta Centre established a relationship with Foodbank QLD from where we are able to access subsidized groceries. We have been providing grocery hampers to local people in need as well as the frozen meals.
From the beginning our belief is that anyone who comes to us for help is in need. There is no eligibility criteria and we don’t ask about their financial situation. People may need help due to other reasons like mental health or loneliness.
Emergency Meals Service
During the hailstorm in 2020, Cr Yonic helped us to distribute food to the frontline workers in Springfield Lakes.
When the first COVID outbreak hit Brisbane earlier this year, our volunteers cooked after work and delivered about 600 meals to people who were isolating in their homes.
Maa Sarada’s Kitchen Café
Maa Sarada’s Kitchen cafe at the Vedanta Centre opened in March 2020.The Café is run by volunteers with operating hours every Saturday from 10am to 1pm. Delicious food is served at reasonable rates. All proceeds go to support the charitable activities of the Vedanta Centre. Patrons of the café are encouraged to donate $5 which will sponsor a free frozen meal to someone in need via our Vedanta Soup Kitchen.
About 60 active volunteers participate in running the Café, some weekly and others intermittently. On average the Café takes 100 orders and sees at least 200 people come through the space every Saturday. People from all backgrounds come to eat and volunteer. Everyone is welcome at Maa Sarada’s Kitchen café! We especially encourage people in our community who are experiencing social isolation and unemployment. Volunteering at the Cafe provides the opportunity to make new friendships and gain new skills and confidence.
New Kitchen
Operating from the small kiosk has become difficult due to space constraint. The new kitchen will enable us to operate more efficiently and expand the services.
The fit out of the new kitchen was completed at a cost of $145,000. We would like to thank the following donors for their generous contributions:- Shayne Neumann, MP for $15000 grant under Stronger community programme by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in 2021 for the kitchen exhaust and ventilation. Ipswich council’s grant of $15000 under the ICC Major Funding towards supply and installation of coldroom. Honda Foundation $26000 towards equipment purchase. Sisters of charity also supported with a generous donation of $10,000. Annie Danks Trust made a grant of $17000 for three years of running the kitchen.
We thank all the volunteers, supporters, local government, state government, federal government and the general public for their help in carrying out this service.
From the beginning our belief is that anyone who comes to us for help is in need. There is no eligibility criteria and we don’t ask about their financial situation. People may need help due to other reasons like mental health or loneliness.Sustaining this service is even more important with the rising cost of food & housing that is affecting many families in the greater Springfield area.
If you would like to sponsor meals for the needy via the Vedanta Soup Kitchen, please contact at info@vedantabrisbane.org. Full sponsor for one day cooking costs $450 (150 meals), and part sponsor $250.