'The happiness on faces is enough for me'

Published Mar 9, 2016

Share

GRANDFATHER of four Rupa Santhan is one of the oldest volunteers of the Food for Life organisation.

His day starts at 4am every day preparing vegetarian meals for schools, orphanages and impoverished communities in Thornville, near Richmond.

To date the retired chef and manager has cooked seven million plates of food.

Santhan, 63, joined the organisation on a part-time basis at the Hare Krishna Temple in Chatsworth, helping devotee Kapila das make and distribute 5 000 plates of food daily.

"The principles of swami drew me into the Food for Life organisation and when I retired in 1998 I decided to join as a full-time volunteer.”

In 2000 he joined the temple as a devotee and was deployed to Lenasia to run the project there, supplying 5 000 plates of food a week.

When Kapila das moved to the US, Santhan was redeployed to Durban and ran the Chatsworth branch alongside another devotee, Laxmi Nath.

“I helped for four years before going back to Gauteng to run the branches in Lenasia and Sandton.

"I spent 10 years in Gauteng before coming to Thornville,” he said.

One of his highlights as a volunteer was in 1997, when he helped Kapila das cook 50 000 plates of food for Nelson Mandela’s birthday.

“The food was prepared for the Festival for the Children of the Rainbow Nation. I felt proud to be associated with an event like this.”

The father of two said he starts cooking at 4am and is done by 8.30am, after which the food is distributed.

His late wife, Mohini, is the motivation for him to continue doing his work.

“My greatest reward is the happiness on children’s faces when they receive a meal, and that is more than enough for me.”

Related Topics: