Lord Krishna in the 21st Century
Chapter 5 - Tornado Devastates Limon, Colorado
It’s impossible to forget the first time I went out with the temple's old maroon van to feed the homeless in front of the Catholic shelter; about five miles from the Denver temple. Three of us were crouched over in the back, trying to keep warm against a cold rain. In fact, the rain was being blown sideways through the doors, getting us all wet.
Regardless of the weather, as I would soon discover, the line of social outcasts and unfortunate souls that stood waiting for our hot prasadam never failed to appear. My many trips to feed the homeless proved this to be true. It wasn't a very pleasant experience, emphasized one day when one of the intoxicated men fell forward, spilling everything on me.
Knowing that there had to be a better way, I bought a 1963 Ford stepvan and converted it into a mobile kitchen. One of my complaints about the old maroon van was how its only Food For Life sign was facing away from traffic as we handed out our meals. Sad but true, I think our overall appearance looked more like a drug deal going down rather than the Hare Krishnas feeding the homeless.
Our new step van certainly took care of that problem. Eventually its brightly painted Food For Life signs were highly visible on three sides and we even played the beautiful maha-mantra over an outside speaker. Once I started going out in our new kitchen we could all detect a much friendlier response from everyone.
It was during this time that the tornado I mentioned tore through Limon, Colorado. I first heard about it on the news; listening to an interview with this one fellow who just dropped everything, rented a truck, got a bunch of supplies together and was out there feeding everyone.
Remembering a film I had seen in the Air Force about an earthquake in Alaska and all the volunteers who rushed to the rescue, I felt so inspired by what this man was doing that I decided to load up some watermelons and cold tea and drive to Limon, myself. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that this was by far the biggest story to hit Denver in a long time.
Eventually, as I got close to the area damaged by the tornado, I was stopped by a roadblock. A very serious looking highway patrol officer motioned for me to pull over.
The maroon Food for Life van.
The step van right after purchasing it.
The step van taken after converting it.
Two happy "customers" across from the Catholic Shelter in Denver, Colorado.