PROJECT OVERVIEW FOR THE FOOD FOR LIFE KITCHEN
ON-CAMPUS
• STAGE 1: Establishment of the new main kitchen, new Deity kitchen, community plate washing room, gazebo and book storeroom
• STAGE 2: Re-development of the theatre and associated rooms/spaces as the new Prasadam Hall (estimated cost $300,000)
• STAGE 3: Re-development of the paraphernalia room to convert to shop at ground level and deity services at level 1; and re-development of the current prasadam hall and temple shop as the new theatre (estimated cost $1M)
OFF-CAMPUS
• establishing a new Crossways ($200,000) and retiring debt on the Project
STAGE 1 Remaining Works
• Building Works $306,000
• Equipment Fit-out $65,000
• Carpark – Estimate $60,000
• Rear Gate - Estimate $15,000
• Security Cameras $5,000
Sub-Total $451,000
Add contingencies 10% $45,100
SUB-Total $496,100
Less Cash-at-bank Oct 11, 2019 $47,000
Total Funds Required $449,100
DECEMBER PROGRESS REPORT
In November we hosted a special fundraising Dinner in the St Kilda Town Hall. The chief guest at the dinner was His Grace Suresvara Dasa, who told us, “I don’t know of any other temple outside of India that’s feeding people sumptuous Krishna prasadam three times a day, come one come all. Melbourne is a great example of what happens when devotees enthusiastically follow Srila Prabhupada’s compassionate instructions to flood the land with Krishna prasadam, to give the public a higher taste with blessed food.
We were fortunate to receive generous pledges totalling $225,000 at the Dinner, then pledges totalling $30,000 immediately afterwards. Please pray that we can receive enough funds (another $195,000) to complete Stage 1. We are planning to begin work on remodelling the old kitchen in February-March, allowing four months for completion.
Stage 1 of our development has been successfully up and running since Janmastami 2018. With the help of a State Government grant and the support of our generous devotee community, we were able to invest 2.5 million dollars to establish a first-class commercial kitchen facility to serve future generations. We also constructed a book store (adjacent to the Paraphernalia room), and a gazebo to serve as a yajna-sthala.
Late in October, the three-phase power was connected. It has taken us nearly three years to do this. Although we installed a solar power generating system that supplies enough power to run the temple and offsets some of our electricity expenses going forward, that system is not enough to run the kitchen. The three-phase power connection allows us to do that.
The three-phase connection has allowed us to test and run in our commercial-size chapati-maker. It can produce 900 chapatis per hour. There is a separate dough mixer, cutter and roller. The roller is part of the main cooker and it loads the flattened dough into the cooker. The plan is to provide chapatis for lunch at the Temple, and at Crossways as an add-on to the regular meal.
Three-phase power also allowed us to connect our dishwasher, which will reduce our environmental footprint. We’re now saving an hour a day in washing dishes. That’s saving the pot shed devotees an hour a day in time spent washing pots. So they can now go and do an hour in cleaning other parts of the kitchen. So we’re saving time, saving effort, and we can potentially save wages.
In November, the back wall of the carpark was re-instated following the new power connection. This month, half of the repaving of the carpark was begun to comply with Council requirements.
What’s still to do in Stage 1? Remodelling the old kitchen means completing the Deity kitchen so that Radha-Vallabha’s offerings can be made in a dedicated devotional space. The guest kitchen, and a plate store (for steel plates) and large-scale plate washing facility also need to be completed. Plate washing can save us up to $40,000 a year. It’s going to make us money. Currently, we send 1,000 compostable suger-cane pulp plates to the tip daily. We spend $40,000 a year on the degradable sugar-cane plates, and $18,000 a year on garbage collection to dispose of them. By investing in steel plates and a plate washing machine, we can save up to $50,000 per year. By installing stainless steel plates, on smaller festivals we’ll all be able to use stainless steel plates, and guests will be able to use stainless steel plates. We also need to install an automatic back gate and security cameras.
If you want to contribute, please contact Guruvandana on +61 415 478 361. We hope to regularly update you on our progress, so please keep an eye on this blog for updates.
