North American Telugu Association (TANA) conducted Vana Bhojanaalu, in association with i4Farmers on July 25th at Merrill Park, Iselin, NJ.
This year’s event was with a unique theme, “Cook for a Cause” to highlight and celebrate farmers’ cause. Event was well attended by over 300 Telugus in New Jersey.
As part of this celebration, organizers conducted a cooking competition, asking people to cook their dish at home and bring it to the competition.
Tremendous response was received with 23 people participating in Appetizers, Main Course and Dessert categories.
All the guests served with variety of Dosas. After that, organizers explained guests about the Indian farmers’ issues currently going on, and why it is important to remember them in our daily lives, farmers are the real people behind our food, before it comes into our plates.
All the guests expressed keen interest to know more about farmers and what goes on in their daily lives, also why they are committing suicides.
Volunteers explained how we, as individuals can contribute to the farmers’ cause. Also, requested all the guests to speak to the farmers in their villages and towns when they visit India.
After the introduction, all the guests were provided with tokens to drop at their choice of dish in 3 categories: Appetizers, Main dish and Dessert.
Guests were asked to taste the food brought by individual participants of “cook for a cause” competition, and drop a token at the dish of there. 2 winners from each category were announced from the no. of tokens received at each dish.
All other participants were provided with participant gifts. Fresh butter milk was prepared to serve guests in the hot sun. Separate lunch was served with food from various restaurants.
Ms. Laxmi Devineni, TANA Regional Coordinator for NJ and NY, coordinated the event with volunteers from TANA and i4Farmers.
Event was supported by all local TANA leadership, and attended by Ravi Potluri, NRC Naidu, Srinivas Orguganti, Nagaraju Narala and Raghu Yadulapalli.
Volunteers, Manasa and Sowjanya arranged “Mehindi” for women and children to raise funds for farmers. Guests played shuttle badminton and volleyball for fun.
Organizers thanked each & every guest for attending this event and making it a grand success. Both TANA and i4Farmers are committed to organize more such events to bring farmers’ issues to the forefront.
