Season of Giving: Giving Back Virtually This Holiday Season, Deepa Mangalat Shares Her Journey of Helping New Hampshire's Homeless Community
“If you want to be happy, those around you should be too. We are excited to introduce today’s woman dreamer, Deepa Mangalat, a woman with a mission to give back in life. Since childhood, she saw the importance of feeding people in need, accompanying her grandmother and mother on her childhood birthdays. A New Hampshire resident, Deepa has worked tirelessly to help the homeless community there, being in the first of the Indian community to start a soup kitchen service. She is also the Chair of City of Nashua's Cultural Connections Committee, facilitating communication between the community and city government by encouraging diversity and inclusion in the City of Nashua. In the spirit of the Season of Giving, Deepa shares her heartwarming journey of giving back, the amazing people she has worked with along the way, how Covid-19 has affected shelters and soup kitchens, and opportunities for all of us to give back virtually this holiday season!
1. You were one of the first to help at the Soup Kitchen in Nashua, NH. How was that experience?
We were just three of us when we first began, Barinder Ahluwalia, my younger daughter Anjana who was about eight then (she's twenty-five now) and myself. It was fun, but a lot of work. I found out later that we were the first from the Indian community to start soup kitchen service.
We had to prep, cook, serve, clean the dishes, and the kitchen. None of us are over 5 feet tall. When we saw the tall cooking pots, I still remember Barinder saying we would fit into them! So Barinder and I stood on crates, in order to reach inside the pots to cook and stir. When anyone came to drop off donations, we would request them to help us bring the heavy pots down from the stove top to serve the guests at the Soup Kitchen.
Back then it was not a very safe place to be. Norma Robitaille, a longtime volunteer at Nashua Soup Kitchen (NSK), was our guardian angel. She would come along, shut the doors and make sure no one tried to enter before it was time to serve. She demanded to know where the men were!
2. What was the inspiration behind your drive to help the homeless? What were some of the obstacles you had to overcome?
Barinder, being a Sikh, grew up doing Langar Seva in the Gurudwaras with her family. Sharing food and equality is of utmost importance in her faith and something she deeply believes in.
For me, growing up Annadaanam (feeding the needy) has always been very important. For every birthday or shradham it was customary to feed the poor. That was something I watched my grandmother and mother observe very diligently. I used to go to drop off the rice, lentils and vegetables at the local orphanage and temples where they would cook and serve the poor. It was a natural progression. My family deity is Annapoorneshwari. There is a beautiful temple dedicated to her in my ancestral tharavad Cherukkunnu, Kannur, Kerala where they served lunch and dinner every day. There is a tradition there when in the night after everyone is fed, a packet of food is left tied to a tree for a thief who may be prowling ... the whole endeavor is supported by the residents and devotees. No one should go hungry!
We do the same here. We get many requests to sponsor meals in honor of parents who are no more, birthday celebrations and other occasions.
We remember serving some Indians at NSK during the last recession in 2008, and they wouldn’t look at me. It was an eye opener. Some of us are just a paycheck away from homelessness.
The general belief is there is no homelessness or need in the USA. How can there be food insecurity and poverty in the most advanced country in the world?
3. Who were some of the people who helped you in this endeavor?
Barinder and I followed Dr. Padma Mathur, late Mr. Prithvi Kumar and his wife Dr. Kala Kumar who believed that service to mankind was service to God. Humanity came first. They were very aware of the need in the local communities, where we live, raise our children and focused on doing exactly that. They began by making sandwiches and dropping them at the local shelter almost thirty years ago!
Public Service was added as one of the committees of Indian Association of New Hampshire (IANH) and Padma Mathur chaired that committee. Through that committee began the work of feeding the local folks. They started in Manchester, NH and later expanded to Nashua, NH. Anything new has its share of stumbling blocks. We experienced our share too. We needed sponsors and volunteers! Both were in short supply at first. I would not call them impediments; they were more like birth pangs!
Vandana Dhakar, Tej Dhakar, Puneetha Palakurthi and Prasad Kalyanapu helped jumpstart the project. If my memory serves me write it was Puneetha who began to sponsor a service on her son's birthday in lieu of a birthday party. Later on, Sai Group (Sai Krishna, Jag Vootkur, Prabha Manjunath), Venu Rao, Chitra Krishnaswamy, Sarita Vaswani, Pushpa Gopal, Sneha Jacob became our back up team. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Saravanan Meyyappan for showing up every time I requested his help cook at NSK. We have never missed a service expect once in over 15 years! Prithvi was always very proud of the fact that we served even during one of the worst blizzards! Prithvi passed away this past February and his last WhatsApp message to me was about the NSK & community service.
4. How has COVID affected the soup kitchen you served and the homeless community?
In Nashua alone, there are around 4,500 kids who qualify for free or reduced lunch, almost half of all kids in the city schools. And there are about 300 kids under the age of 18 who are homeless in the Greater Nashua area. Homelessness and food insecurity are inextricably intertwined. Now that the schools are all online and many parents are out of work, arrangements have been made to feed these kids. Think about the toll on mental health, especially when you factor in substance use disorder.
The Nashua Children's Home has provided care, shelter, and education for children with a troubled family life. Even in a normal year the holiday season is a difficult time for them, and the pandemic has only exacerbated their challenges. The children haven't been able to engage in a lot of community activities which they would otherwise have been involved with or hold community jobs. They will not be able to go to their homes for Christmas.
This is our community. Hard to not do anything and keep silent.
5. You have been involved with some very inspiring projects for social impact in New Hampshire communities. Tell us a little bit about them and what have been some of your learning experiences through serving the community?
Since my association with Chinmaya Mission Boston chapter as a Balvihar teacher, my interest has been in inculcating values in children.
Barinder and I started the IANH Youth Group with a focus on getting the kids together to socialize and engage in community service, specifically giving back to those in need.
Soup Kitchen service was one of the pre-requisites for IANH Youth Group members to hold office. They would participate in the Nashua Children's Home holiday gift giving program, where they were responsible to shop, wrap, drop off gifts and would also get a tour of the home. They continue this even today. Teenagers who are usually forgotten during the gift giving time, we would sponsor them through Salvation Army. Nashua Children's Home needs monetary donations or gift cards this year. We encouraged Youth Group kids to do more for the elderly. With guidance from late Prithvi Kumar and Jeyanthi Ghatraju’s help, we started a session of dance & music performances for the seniors at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home.
We once received a call for help from a domestic violence victim and that prompted us to look for ways to assist. Barinder joined Saheli Boston, and we opened a chapter here. We got involved with Bridges the local agency that helped with this issue and helped raise funds for New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
In mid-March, when we suddenly found ourselves amid a pandemic and the city of Nashua had just shut down, a group of concerned Indian Americans got together to pool resources to help those affected by the crisis. It was Jasmine Shah who formed this group. Since I am Chair of the City of Nashua's Cultural Connections Committee, Jasmine very graciously asked me to identify areas where help may be most needed here in the Greater Nashua area. That group has now evolved into the Indian Americans United for New Hampshire (IAUNH), with over 100 members.
We reached out to help some of the most vulnerable in the city, through the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter (NSKS) and End 68 Hours of Hunger and helped struggling restaurants by donating food to NSKS purchased from them. We also acquired N95 masks for Southern NH Medical Center and St. Joseph's Hospital, and donated fabric and supplies to New England Maskateers towards mask production and distribution.
We will continue our work at helping feed the hungry. The winter months will be a challenging time. Food distribution on four Sundays is now being covered by Shanta Bisht of the Nepali Community, Jaya Aravind, Padmaja Kunnapareddy and team, and IANH.
All this is very humbling and fulfilling. When you work for the welfare of all, you benefit immensely. My Ammuma (grandmother) used to say this often; if you want to be happy, those around you should be too. I understand those wise words now. More importantly our children are watching us; they follow what they observe. During a Gita session last week, Acharya Shashiji told the class that Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda used to say often prosperity should never be at the expense of someone else's poverty. We have done well here. Others have not been as fortunate. Who are we to judge another?
In my work especially with the city I have met some wonderful people who work tirelessly for the betterment of their community. It is very inspiring and motivates me to do the same. This community helped me when I most needed it. When my father was dying of cancer I was surrounded by concern and care. He passed away peacefully in my home, cared for by me. I am extremely grateful for that.
6. How can people give back during this holiday season/are there ways to virtually give back?
There are many ways to give back to the community during these uncertain times.
Here are a few options to volunteer virtually:
Many organizations offer opportunity to support families in need during the holiday season by purchasing gifts from their wish list.
Contact a local senior residential facility or nursing home and perform virtually for senior citizens from your homes. Music and dance bring joy to them.
Virtual race is so easy...you pick your own day, time, no parking problems, do it any way you want! And it will get people moving which is so important since we all have been stuck home! You can run on a treadmill or outside. Get the kids involved and moving as well.
So many traditional charity races and walks have been canceled or postponed this year, but you can still do it, physically distanced. Decide on a time when participants can walk or run in their own neighborhood.
Do not forget animal shelters. They need a lot of help too.
Finally, donate as generously as you can to your local soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and food banks. Winter is here and when you add a pandemic, we are looking at difficult times ahead. Nashua Soup Kitchen has started a winter clothing drive. Visit their website to learn how to donate. (But before you donate, please check with ‘Charity Navigator’ or ‘Guidestar’ to see if a charity is worthy of your donation.)