Community Kitchen

Project summary

Lha Community Kitchen

Refugees who arrive in Dharamsala, from an often long and grueling journey from Tibet, come carrying little or no possessions, and have no means to support themselves. The recent arrivals, as well as some long-term residents in the community, face problems meeting their basic needs, including nutrition.  Many people in the community often go hungry due to the lack of resources to cook or the lack of financial support for buying nutritious food. In Dharamsala the facilitation of these basic needs are not being met. Lha continues to receive inquiries regarding food assistance programs because we are known as a social service agency; therefore we plan to use our newly-acquired space to respond to this demand. Lha plans to open a community kitchen on the first floor of our new building. The Lha Community Kitchen will provide nutritious vegetarian meals at a very low cost to those in need. The program will provide for the basic alimentation of the Tibetan refugee community, Lha students, Lha volunteers, as well as the local Indian population, and other Himalayan peoples in Dharamsala. The initial expense for furniture, and basic supplies, such as kitchen equipment, will be $14,242.

Once the funds are raised for the initial capital expenditures, the kitchen will become self-sustaining, through a combination of the money charged for meals and continued donations and support from Lha.

New Building Renovation

Lha is currently beginning to operate in a new, larger building which will provide the additional space needed to expand our services to the community.  At present, the new building is divided into domestic apartments.  We plan to transform some of these apartments into vocational skills training rooms, while maintaining others as housing spaces for our international volunteers. The first floor is to house a community kitchen, which will provide cheap, clean, nutritious food to those in need. The renovation of the entire first floor is estimated to be cost $10,000.

Budget

Total Expenses for Kitchen project USD $ 24,242