My gratitude to many beautiful souls who came together in visible and invisible ways to make May - Karma Kitchen a vegan, nature friendly in every way possible. The planning started a few weeks back shopping for organic ingredients, looking for a commercial baking place and staying committed to values that we all hold very dear that is to...

On the opening day of Karma Kitchen Hayward, we had lots of beautiful experiences, stories, ripples & community connections. The volunteer spent the full day sending out unconditional love & respect to all. :) After couple months of planning, we finally arrived at the launch of KK in the heart of the bay! It was a beautiful...

  Thanks for a beautiful Karma Kitchen last Sunday!  As Emmanuel summed it up, it was uplifting not only on the surface and also elevating at a subtle level.   Our day started with our own reflections, with  Arthur's  story of reaching out to a homeless person or  Erik's  insights of not giving up...

Thank you for a joyous time of service, last Sunday at Karma Kitchen! We served 152 guests and spread lots of ripples of generosity.  From a NY Times best selling author to a first-date (which went very well :)) to a Catholic priest to many first-timers who had never experienced a "gift economy", our guests spanned the...

Last week a woman came to @KarmaKitchen with her four young kids, all rather sad and silent. We didn't know why but we took it up as our challenge to make their day; various servers tried different tricks, but nothing worked. Then, Arthur went up and tried, but still nothing ... until he landed upon a genuis question for the kids: "We...

" If you were not afraid of failure, what would you do today? "  This was the themed question of the day that Karma Kitchen guests were introduce to when entering the restaurant.  With this in mind, 138 guests poured in at a steady flow, keeping the house just filled to the brim but not overflowing. As...

As we served 111 guests yesterday, one thing that particularly stood out for me was how people engaged in small acts of gratitude. A woman gave us a hand-made thank-you card with her own photography, one guest offered a signed copy of her book to Keith, one man visiting KK after a long time insisted on giving me his tie!, another on...

I am fortunate to have been part of the Karma Kitchen team this past Sunday in Berkeley, just before the Christmas holidays. After our shift was over and we sat down to a community (and long awaited) luncheon, I found myself suddenly moved and almost reluctant to go. The impact to me was strong enough to inspire deeper reflection, and...

Last month, a few Karma Kitchen volunteers and I were casually talking to the restaurant owner, Rajen Thapa. He remarks, "I've noticed that Karma Kitchen really changes people, even the creme of the crop at UC Berkeley." We start talking about the vast ripple effect of Karma Kitchen in the local community, and then he adds one of his...

Early in the day, during my volunteer shift at Karma Kitchen, an elder woman came in -- she might have been the first guest -- and was seated in the far corner. After her server had greeted her and given her water and a mango lassi, I tagged her with a handmade smile button.  She hadn't smiled much, but she did smile for a second when...