Victoria's Mother's Kitchen began in 2002 with a humble prayer: Amma's children wanted to bring her teachings and example of service to life. Hans, a devotee who had worked with food, helped set it up – buying what we needed for the sandwiches and learning the needs of this vulnerable community. At first eight or ten of us met in Bryan's house on Saturday mornings, with tables pushed together into a long assembly line and Amma's bhajans playing on a portable stereo, to make 200 to 300 sandwiches.
Over time, the Open Door shelter asked us to switch to Sundays, when it was closed and there was little free food downtown. Reverend Al, who ran Open Door, offered us the use of its kitchen and funds for groceries, and Cobb's Bakery agreed to supply the bread – as it still does today. In 2007, two community groups came together to open Our Place, a large shelter where people can come in from the cold for soup and a sandwich. To this day, guests tell us it's the best meal they get.
Each Sunday now begins with baking 500 cookies for Reverend Al, who reaches out to the hardest-to-reach homeless, starting at 4:30 in the morning with hot coffee and Amma's cookies. Then we make 450 to 500 sandwiches and offer trays of sweets and soup. People of many faiths serve side by side with Amma's bhajans playing, and when the seva is done we stand together, hands at our hearts, for a Sanskrit prayer and then a Christian prayer.
It is not what we receive, but what we are able to give, that determines the value of our life.
— Amma
