What is Karma Kitchen?

Imagine a restaurant where there are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: "Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. We hope you will pay-it-forward however you wish."

That's Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-driven experiment in generosity.

Run by volunteers, our meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to the guest as a genuine gift. To complete the full circle of giving and to sustain this experiment, we leave it to the guest to pay it forward, expressing their goodness in whatever way they wish. One immediate option is to contribute toward the cost of serving a future guest. In keeping this chain going, the generosity of both guests and volunteers helps to create a future that moves from transaction to trust, from self-oriented isolation to shared commitment, and from fear of scarcity to celebration of abundance. Learn more >>

How can I Participate?

Dine At Karma Kitchen On Sundays, from 11AM-3PM, we are serving up generosity at: 

Taste of Himalayas Restaurant 1700 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Here's a 3 min video for a taste of Karma Kitchen generosity, as captured by an 18 year-old with a video camera for UC Berkeley's student-run newspaper.

Karma Kitchen

Endless Possibilities:

How perfect for Karma Kitchen. A place where those possibilities seem to manifest every moment in beautiful and simple ways. Like the Orchid Giver of KK -- a woman named Susan who comes on so many Sundays with the gift of a slender, potted orchid meant to be paid-forward. Or the young first-time volunteer who flew in all the way from Florida, whose thoughtful service and bubbling sincerity left such an impression on one guest (and real-life restaurant waiter) that he wanted to sign up to volunteer just so he could "learn to serve like that". And then there is the truly remarkable story of the much-tatttooed man who walked in one afternoon, ate a meal at a corner table by himself and came back later to share an incredible story, his story: The Food Thief at Karma Kitchen 

Piero's story, the self proclaimed 'food thief', is so moving that I will post it in its entirety despite its length...

[A stocky guy with a shaven head and tattooes on his neck and a Cuban accent, walks into Karma Kitchen yesterday.  He helps wash some dishes, we have lunch together, he gets home and sends in this story that he had shared in person.  This is the true story of one Piero Amadeo Infante.]

I was 17 years old.

Circumstances were grim at that time in my life. I was homeless, my mother was out of the country, and I usually spent my time wandering around hungry, or playing drums and getting into trouble, with my friends, several kids like me from Berkeley high and Oakland tech high schools.

I was homeless, but prideful. Most people didn't know that despite the fact that I dressed sharp, I would wind up sleeping on the roof of Willard junior high, or on one of the several steam vents on the UC campus.

And I was always hungry.  It's hard to explain how that shaped my life, always being hungry. A desperation often crept over my thoughts, heart, and life. It affected everything. 

Some days I would go to the plentiful plum and apricot trees that line many of the streets in Berkeley, especially the area above Telegraph Avenue between Dwight and Ashby. Sometimes I would take a piece of the fennel that grows all around Berkeley and chew it and put it under my lip, they way beetle nut users in Southeast Asia do, to quell hunger pangs.  Once as a child, I met Swami Prabhupada, founder of the Hare Krishna movement in the United States, who prepared a meal for me, and said, "Eat my child, eat." It would be one of the many times I relied on the kindness of spiritually elevated people for my survival.

I remember the concept of spiritual food as the devotees would bring the public "prashadam" or "holy food", as I would come to understand it. Back in those days, the food was offered freely to the public as a spiritual blessing; after the founder's death in 1977, it changed a little with the requirement of some donation or other gift. Like a restaurant. And I was made to feel guilty and uncomfortable coming there for food.  Guilt and shame became regular emotions associated with food.

On a good,day, a day when I could swallow my pride, my Godmother always had something for me to eat.  Her and her house were the only place I felt safe and she has been a loving friend my entire life.  But I still felt shame at my situation.

In my hunger of those years, I became something I am not proud of, but also have no shame for today:

A food thief.

I remember timing my visits so that I could snatch some food from a temple kitchen on Stuart Street. Later I would master stealing fruit from places on Telegraph Avenue for my younger brothers. Even later, I would become an expert in what is now called "dine and dash" ordering sumptuous meals at expensive restaurants and then running without paying the tab. I became a master at feeding my family, through thievery at the age of 17. I was the oldest of an extended family of 13 and my talent for stealing food for kids became well known to hungry kids in the neighborhood.  And there were always a lot of hungry kids in the neighborhood.

I would wander all night long, looking for bare necessities for survival.  I discovered that underneath some of the outdoor areas of restaurants in Berkeley and Oakland, that coins fell through the panels, and would scoop some up periodically.

Once, around 4AM, I happened across the old Colombo French Bread Factory (which used to be on the corner of market and 40th), and smelt the delicious fresh bread.  I wandered inside saying that I was interested in how the bread was made, and I remember how an old man there instantly figured that I was hungry and kindly handed me a loaf of bread.  I will never forget that man.

Other times, though, I would steal.  One of the restaurants I would steal from regularly was at the corner of Shattuck and Virginia.  I don't remember the name of the place, but in later years, I would play music at a Cuban restaurant next door called 'Siboney'.  Anyhow, I stole food from these places on a regular basis, and we would feast, laughing with my family at our latest haul -- the way pirates do after seizing some treasure.  Despite our situation, those were good times.

So, decades passed. I played music, became very loved and popular here in my home town and became a man. My personal philosophy matured to one principle, in particular: "No one goes hungry on my watch."  All my life I have wondered at the blindness of those more fortunate, and now I was becoming one of them.

I developed food issues. Having it, sharing, acquiring it, and preparing it, became obsessions for me. My weight fluctuated.  Nutrition became the focal point for all my interests.  With my growing spiritual condition as well with my growing understanding of food, I saw food as a basic human right that no one should be denied of.

Later, a girlfriend -- Linda Partida, who has become the greatest teacher I have ever had and who initiated the "vegetarian food for prisoners" movement --  taught me about the idea of "Primary Food", which is to say, food for the soul, heart, and mind.

After receiving these blessings, some of which I often felt unworthy of (common feeling amongst kids whose parents that didn't feed them), the past year in particular has become the time of my greatest spiritual growth and understanding of myself and others. I began pondering the next move in my spiritual development.

Then one day, walking down Shattuck Avenue on my way to coffee, I saw a banner titled "Karma Kitchen" in colors that reminded me of the Krishna temple of my youth. My curiosity overwhelmed me, and I entered, suddenly remembering this place as the place where in my desperation I had stolen food as a youth.  Imagine my surprise!

A slide show of images of Karma Kitchen on Flickr

Coming inside, I, like many others had the same incredulous reaction when I was told, "The food is offered on a pay-it-forward basis.  Your meal is paid for by someone before you and you pay forward for those after you."  It implored you to consider your place in the world.

I was stunned. Could not speak for several moments -- a rarity for me!  I saw the volunteers all smiling and felt the love emanating from the place.  I suppressed a desire to cry for several minutes, until I was seated, and then cried freely, hoping no one would see me.

In that moment I felt freedom, and love, and kindness of people who understood what food really was -- medicine for the soul, and the life-sustaining love of the world that everyone needed. So strange that I, by fate's hand alone, would come, over 30 years later to the same place where I was a thief, and be given loving spiritual food freely, and with only the direction to "pay forward."

The delicious vegetarian food they brought me was fragrant, fresh and beautifully prepared.  It healed me greatly, to know that someone would know so well, the kid I once was, and still am, and feed him. 

It is with a great of joy that I found you all, and myself, in Karma Kitchen, and look forward to being of whatever service I can, and I have found in the humble actions of washing dishes, a happiness I would have never expected in the company of people who understand that food, is in fact, love.

I wish you all the love in the world. Thank you for helping heal me, and the hungry child that still lives inside me. You do all of us a service by reminding us that there are many ways to pay for a meal, but the most valuable one is to pay forward.

I HIGHLY recommend that you all visit Karma Kitchen on Sundays.  It has changed my Sundays, and my life.

Love, Piero

Tahoe's Lady of The Lake

I hear the lapping of the water,
at all its edges, 
pledging, vows Of eternity.
As I wait for thee,
For My Mystress,
My Lady of the Lake.
Oh! Where is she,
this Love of mine, this dream, 
that I can neither forget nor forsake?

The Lady Tahoe,
Where are you?

And so, I watch, I listen,
I pray and I wait.

Tahoe is speaking to my very soul,
weaving her tapestry.
Reaching out to me,
in her poetry and artistry,
with such tender, fairy rendered fantasies.
Casting her spells
in wishes yet, to be,
buried and kept in the depths, 
of me and she. 

Tahoe's Blues, wondrous!
Yes, You are all of this.
Sweet Serenity is you!
Splashing all about,
God's paint brush,
has rendered you
and sent you into Infinity.
He has kissed you
in His praise,
wrapped His Sweet Blessings,
in these days.
And now, sings here, 
in a hundred different ways.

For God plays his own instruments,
His words are its notes,
Tahoe's own sweet symphony.
Composed of all these melodies
He has written, blessed, sung 
And then again rewrote.

JumpingOffToLakeTahoe

Emeraude,
Drifting through the air, 
hear and see,
its wondrous notes, surrounding me, 
dancing with the breeze,
ballets that rise, descend, then climb again.
Up to the mountains, then your skies
And all along theses waters and the shore, 
Where I stand rejoicing in this orchestration,
Which is Yours!
Sweet Revery,
of music, dance and me.

Tahoe's wrapping
every sliver of Thy soul
about its breathing, living sky.
As it sweeps across my brow
there are no words,
for the rising feelings felt
and my soul has knelt and bowed
to that, I still can not see.
Tahoe's depths reaching deep inside of me.

Emeraude is all of this,
Thy Love Song And thy Kiss..

Enchantment all of this.

And I am 
Still seeking my Lady in these Mists.

The Lady Tahoe.
I feel her, My Lady,
looking into her crystal blue mirror
watching for her through this pool 
of waiting need,
something in me pleads, 
let it at last be so.

A voice,
her voice calls out to me.

I am here!
Where?
Here!

I wait.
I watch.
I yearn.
Can Love be all this
joy and thanksgiving,
falling down and ecstasy?
Then Lake Tahoe, she awakes.
I see her shimmer
and I shiver. 
Wonder is of this,
Mists like veils of lace are rising.
I see her spirit rise
the mists entwine and kiss.

The Lady of the Lake,
My Lady Tahoe,
Mystress of Thy Faeries and Thy Mists.
coming forth for me.
She is here and reaching out to me.
She looks into my eyes 
and I cry for her and all that is this
Fantasy, 
Now, revealed to me.

She is all of majesty,
her arms surrounding me 
and I am lost in them and she,
She pulls my heart from me
in her spirituality.
We embrace,
We embrace!

HornyRudolphHugged

Emeraude,
our song, plays on, 
our loves sweet prayer
that All Lovers find their way,
to one another and a home born 
of the like of this.
Tahoe's Mystress, Tahoe's Kiss,
Tahoe's Love To be both sought 
and found and heard,
forever floating in these mists.

~ By Linda A. Copp ~