• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

UCLA administrators put an end to a student group’s lunch program this week after they determined the group’s activity constituted an illegal sale of food on campus.

Already about 50 students have signed petitions asking the university to allow Nama Kirtan das, a monk of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, to continue serving food on campus to members of the Bhakti Yoga Club. Nama Kirtan das has brought vegetarian Indian meals to campus on Mondays and Tuesdays for about three years.

After reading a Daily Bruin article about the Bhakti Yoga Club’s program, Steve Fuller, Environmental Health Program Manager for UCLA Environment, Health & Safety, sent an e-mail to some UCLA staff telling them he believed the organization’s biweekly food sales constituted a public event that violated California law.

“I was aware of this ongoing event, but the group’s leadership represented it to me as a private event for club members only and not a food sale open to the larger community,” Fuller wrote in the e-mail, dated Jan. 25.

According to the e-mail, student groups qualify in California as Nonprofit Charitable Temporary Food Facilities, which can sell food four times in one calendar year.

In addition to these four allowances, student groups can sell food at community events where multiple organizations participate.

Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming and one of the recipients of the e-mail, said Tuesday that while he did not know specific details of the Bhakti Yoga Club’s activities, those who serve food on campus must comply with all laws, including those that set standards for health and safety.

Terry Saunders, a CSP advisor, sent an e-mail last Thursday to Milind Joshi, president of the Bhakti Yoga Club, telling him Nama Kirtan das could no longer bring food to UCLA.

Nama Kirtan das said those who purchased the cuisine he served on campus were generally members of the Bhakti Yoga Club who had prepaid for their meals. He added that the food is served hot and that all of it is prepared at the International Society for Krishna Consciouness’s restaurant off Venice Boulevard, which meets health and safety requirements established by law.

The purpose of bringing food was not to make money, he said. At $4 for an all-you-can-eat plate, all revenue from the Krishna Lunch went back into supporting the program, he added.

“This is a service for the students. ... It’s something they want and they choose,” he said.

Joshi said Nama Kirtan das’ visits meant he and other students in the club could eat tasty vegetarian food on campus twice a week.

The lack of vegetarian options on the menu at UCLA – where raw salad dominates the meat-free menu – is the larger issue, Joshi said.

With reports from Charles Proctor, Bruin senior staff.