SEWA ACTIVITY IN MARCH 2021, BY VEERSAVARKAR SHAKHA, THOUSAND OAKS, CA
Based on a quote from Swami Vivekananda “Service to man is service to God”, which translates to helping the people that are in need is serving the ultimate God, Veersavarkar Shakha in Thousand Oaks, CA engaged in a sewa activity of distributing the food in Moorpark Food Pantry, Moorpark, CA.
Food was sorted and packaged in boxes which is sufficient for one week per family. This food is donated by Ventura County Food share and members of the local community to Ruben Castro Charities. Volunteer's sort, organize, pack and keep the boxes ready for distribution to the needy on every Saturday for about 250 to 300 families. On Saturday, March 13th, 2021, around 20 swayamsevaks and sevikas of Veersavarkar Shakha along with 4 kishores participated in this activity. As the families came along with bala and additional kishore, there was a big crowd.
After everybody signed the entry forms, the volunteers at the food pantry gave directions on where everyone could help based on their interests. Karyakarthas split to help at registration desk, moving the food to distribution stations, giving out the boxes of food or toys or flowers, and with clean up.
At around noon, cars started coming and within a span of 3 hours, almost 300 cars came. Below few sevikas are seen handing out the flowers and toys.
After the distribution, the volunteers at the food pantry appreciated everyone from the Shakha. Swayamsevaks and Sevikas also expressed their interest in coming back to help in the food pantry again.
Kishores that came showed a very great enthusiasm towards the activity. With over 25 karyakarthas including kishores, this event was a great success. This stood as another example to show that “Sewa” is a great means of bringing karyakarthas together. Everybody left with a great feeling of seeing the shakha families in person and doing a wonderful thing together as one big family!