Woodbridge Hindu Group Donates 13,000 Pounds Of Food

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — This past Thanksgiving, the Hindu community of Woodbridge donated 13,000 pounds of non-perishable food to "We Feed Woodbridge" program.

The food donation was outcome of their annual #SewaDiwali food drive in conjuction with Hindu festival of Diwali. This is the fifth year the Woodbridge Hindu community did the food drive.

From September 26 to November 5, the Hindu volunteers — the majority of whom are Woodbridge school students — collected food by standing in front of grocery stores at Oak Tree Road and also by doing a door-to-door campaign to spread the word about the food drive.

A total of thirteen thousand pounds of food was collected and handed over to Peter Barcelona from We Feed Woodbridge at the concluding event on Nov. 5, held at the Indiana Avenue School No. 18 parking lot.

Mayor John McCormac, Councilman Viru Patel, Sharon McAuliffe, Lizbeth DeJesus and Kyle Anderson, Barcelona, Police deputy chief Joseph Nisky and others were present that day.

"We had an amazing partnership from 21 schools of Woodbridge township, Wegmans, The GoddardSchool, Dogwood Meadow community, Art of living , Mallakamph Federation, Samskrut Bharati and HSS senior citizens group," said volunteer Pratiksha Gaikwad. "Our volunteers setup food collection centers at their home and campaigned in their neighborhood."

The group also shared this from a Hindu text:

“Paropakarartham Vahanti Nadya, Paropakarartham Duhanti Gaaya, Paropakarartham Phalanti Vriksha, Paropakarartham Idam Shareeram," which translates to "The river flows to give water, the cow gives milk for others, the tree bears fruit for others & similarly this human body is to help others without expecting anything in return. "