Paul Turner On Turning Humanitarian Food Relief Into Deeper Social Impact

Australian born, Paul Rodney Turner is the current Director of Food for Life Global, the world's largest vegan food relief organisation with projects in over 65 countries.

The charity’s services include free schools, orphanages, animal sanctuaries and large scale food distribution kitchens that serve over 2 million freshly cooked meals daily.

At the age of 19 Paul was initiated into the Vaisvana tradition and lived as a monk for 14 years. He is a former board member of IVU (International Vegan Union); was a senior consultant for the World Bank for 10 years, and along with teaching Food Yoga is an accomplished Indian gourmet and raw vegan chef.

He is an author of 6 books including, FOOD YOGA, The Five Noble Truths, and How to Build a Successful Food Relief. During his volunteer work for Food for Life, Paul has visited over 73 countries, as well as coordinating disaster relief for the Asian tsunami of 2004.

Paul discusses how Food For Life Global is providing humanitarian relief through equitably distributing plant-based meals and opportunities for organisations to prioritise social impact.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and then what was it that originally led to your work in social enterprise and charity?

[Paul Turner] - I was a regular kid growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, but I was always a bit of a philosopher. An example of this was at the age of 15, I became an amateur astronomer, and literally, with my best friend, we would sit up at night, sometimes all night, just studying the stars and looking for meteor showers and UFOs. We became good amateur astronomers and could read the night sky. We learned the Greek alphabet, which is what is used to measure the magnitude of stars. That planted a seed in my heart to ask the big questions about life, which are why are we here, why are we so small, and if the universe is so big, what is our purpose? Fast forward a few years, and I decided to take the big step of immersing myself in a spiritual tradition to find those answers. Starting at the age of 19 (which is radical looking back) and until 33, I practiced celibacy and studied the ancient scriptures of India to find those answers, and that set the framework for the rest of my life because my first service as a monk was preparing food and feeding the homeless in Sydney. That formed my life's mission, and I made feeding the world a big part of the direction of my life. Food for Life became the main vehicle for that. Over the years, and this is starting from 1984 when I first became a volunteer, Food For Life was really a grassroots operation. At the time, there were maybe 10 projects around the world, maybe not even that. In 1993, I was already running my own Food for Life project in Sydney, and I was asked to leave Australia to set up the headquarters for an international effort to expand the program around the world. In 1995, we finally did establish the non-profit, and now in 2023, we have projects in 65 countries, serving between one and two million meals every day. Along with Food for Life, I have various social enterprises which support the charity work myself and my wife do. Her name is Juliana, and she runs the only animal sanctuary in all of Columbia. It's a certified animal sanctuary with 300 animals, and it's also part of the affiliate network of Food for Life Global.

As Director of Food for Life Global, can you please share how this non-profit is generating an impact and what are its activities?

Our mission at Food for Life Global is to unite the world through the sharing, and liberal distribution of plant-based meals prepared with loving intention. It's a unique angle on solving the big problem of world hunger. Although we are very good at filling bellies, there are many other non-profits in this space that are very good at providing meals. However, many are maybe not as cost-efficient as Food for Life Global and certainly not vegan, which is another unique aspect of our project; it's all freshly cooked and plant-based. But more importantly, we have a philosophy called Food Yoga, where we believe one of the ingredients added as you prepare a meal is the intention you put into it, and this gets back to the roots of my spirituality, when as monks when we were preparing the meals for the public, we wouldn't even taste the food while we prepared it. It's pretty much standard practice for most chefs worldwide, that while they're preparing food, they're sticking a spoon in the pot and tasting to make sure it's just right. We don't do that at Food for Life Global because our understanding is this is a gift. Just like if you were to buy your girlfriend a box of chocolates, you wouldn't taste one of the chocolates before you gave her the box! You'd give her the box of chocolates as they are in their pure form. Because we believe our meals are a loving gift, so we want them to be experienced like that.

Paul (right) is joined by Clover Moore (Lord Mayor of Sydney) during the serving of the 2 millionth free meal in Sydney in 1990.

One of the ingredients used during our meal preparation is the intention, so we want to ensure our intention is pure. This is a gift for someone in need; it's a blessing. There's a subtle aspect of food, which most people are not familiar with, and that's the idea behind the Food Yoga concept, where the word 'yoga' means to connect. So when you have Food Yoga, it's about connecting with food on a more intimate level, a more subtle level. We’re using pure food as a way to connect with someone else in a profound way, beyond the physical. The concept of Food Yoga makes Food for Life Global very different, and the fact that we are plant-based is very unique. All our meals are freshly cooked, which is another very unique aspect because at the scale that we operate, it's typically not expected or it's not what big organisations do. They don't prepare freshly cooked meals; it's typically frozen or pre-packaged. Whereas with us, we freshly cooked food that day.

THERE'S FOOD RELIEF GOING ON AT A MASS SCALE AROUND THE WORLD. THEN WE HAVE EDUCATIONAL COMPONENTS, WHERE WE PROVIDE MEALS AT SCHOOLS TO UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN, THUS ENCOURAGING THEM TO GO TO SCHOOL, GET A FULL EDUCATION AND BREAK THE POVERTY CYCLE.

We have animal sanctuary projects, where we support the rescue and caring of rescued animals to show people that all life is sentient and deserves respect. It's not just humans because we're all in this together, we're all interdependent beings, and all life is sacred. That's a very important message as well. The other significant thing regarding our impact and the measurability of Food for Life is that we deliver, on average, one freshly cooked meal for 50 cents. Every dollar donated will result in two underprivileged children or adults getting a freshly cooked plant-based meal.

How can you provide a long-term social impact in addition to immediately responding to a humanitarian crisis?

It's a good question because one of the ways people criticise projects like this is due to feeling like it's a really short-term solution. They will usually say, “instead of feeding a man fish, teach them how to fish,” or, “instead of feeding a man vegetables, teach them how to garden,” which is the vegan version of that maxim by the way! Food for Life has been a first responder to some of the greatest disasters in modern history, one of them being the tsunami of 2004 on Boxing Day, which devastated Southeast Asia and took the lives of a quarter of a million people. We were a first responder; literally that same afternoon we had a Food for Life team in South India providing meals. Very soon after that, we set up camps around the island of Sri Lanka, which is just below India, where three-quarters of the island had been impacted by the disaster, so there were many people displaced and suffering. We set up makeshift kitchens in the villages around the island and provided about 350,000 meals over the next three months. Regarding long-term impact, one of the ways we do that is by including education as a component of our food relief response. When we provide meals, we try to teach people about sustainability, growing food, ways to feed themselves economically, and how to not depend on the government through farming. In India, we have a very good example of this, where we provide meals at government schools that underprivileged children attend. Many of those children if not for the free meal provided at lunchtime by Food for Life, would not be coming to school. They'd be at home working with their family trying to make ends meet to survive. But because we provide a freshly cooked meal at the school, their mothers and fathers are encouraging them to go to school to get an education. That education leads to breaking the poverty cycle. It's really a long-term solution, which at first looks like just filling bellies, but is actually generating a long-term impact.

How does Food for Life Global measure its impact and contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and why is it important for other organisations to do so?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have been a good guideline for not just non-profits, but any impact organisation or social enterprise to guide their strategy and make a difference in the world. At the end of the day, you may have good intentions, but if your intentions are not directed properly, then it could be a waste of money and effort. We've identified there are seven SDG's we touch with our project, and as I've mentioned, we’re not just feeding people, it's a very comprehensive approach to solving world hunger. We’re not just filling bellies, there is the philosophical side where we believe food is a medium of intention. It's a great communicator, so therefore it can be used not only to fill bellies but also to create a sense of unity in the world, thus addressing issues like diversity. Looking at the SDGs we believe we are touching, there's No Poverty (Goal 1). When we talk about poverty, the first thing people think about is the struggle for people to put food on the table, because there are billions of people around the world struggling to put a meal on the table. They're living on as little as a few dollars a day, which is extraordinary when you think about it. The amount of waste that happens in Western and developed countries is massive, and yet there are billions of people that are struggling to put a bowl of rice on the table. Every day, over 900 million people go to bed hungry, which is appalling when you think about it because the earth has the capacity to feed two to three times our total population. But, because food is not equitably shared, there are people going to bed hungry, and so the natural question is, "why is there an inequitable distribution of food? Why aren't we sharing the resources of the world?"

Paul as a monk in 1993 traveling through Russia establishing new projects.

It's simply because we don't have a sense of unity, we don't have a sense of global brother and sisterhood. That's a big problem in the world. No Poverty is one goal that we're addressing, Zero Hunger (Goal 2) is obviously another because that's directly related to filling bellies. We are addressing Good Health and Well-Being (Goal 3) specifically due to the fact that we only serve plant-based food. This is directly addressing that SDG because it's well recorded and documented that a plant-based diet is far superior, nutritionally dense, and better for most of the population to survive. Granted, everyone has a different biology and everyone's going to have a slightly different diet, but as a rule of thumb, a plant-based diet, at least mostly, is way better for people's health and well-being, so we only serve plant-based meals.

Paul feeding underprivileged children in India as part of the Midday Meal Lunch program.

Quality Education (Goal 4) this specifically relates to our efforts in India, where we work directly with the Indian government to provide meals at government-sponsored schools so that underprivileged children get freshly cooked meals and encourage them to get an education. Reduced Inequalities (Goal 10) is another SDG we address, and this is through our Food Yoga philosophy, using food as a medium for equality and unity. We also contribute to Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11). Over 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities and one billion lack access to drinkable water. Some of our programs provide fresh water wells and things like that. It's not just about feeding people, we also have programs to provide fresh water for these people.

ALL OF FOOD FOR LIFE GLOBAL'S FOOD PROGRAMS ARE COMPLETELY VEGAN AND PROVIDE A SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE TO MEAT BECAUSE ONE OF THE THINGS WHICH PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND IS THAT THE BIGGEST POLLUTER OF OUR WORLD’S WATERWAYS IS THE FACTORY FARMING OF ANIMALS.

50% of the world's waterways are polluted by factory farms so the more people can adopt a plant-based diet, the better it is for the world's waterways. Then there is Climate Action (Goal 13), again related to the fact our meals are plant-based. Back in 2016, there was a report that came out and identified that the pollution created by the planes, trains, and cars of the world was actually less than the factory farming of animals. Factory farming of animals was the greatest polluter of the environment, and yet the irony is you have people advocating for the environment, and yet you ask them what their diet is, and they'll say that they eat red meat, chicken, and everything else, thus undermining their sincere efforts to try to help the environment. It's documented that a plant-based diet is better for the environment, and factory farming is the worst thing for the environment. These are the seven SDGs that we've currently identified as related to the work that we do.

Where are there opportunities for people to develop their own organisations to create a social impact?

This could be a good question for ChatGPT; you could ask that question and get a whole bunch of answers! The world as we see it today is so different from when I was younger. The issues of the world are just being amplified, and culture and politics are just crumbling. It's like everything is just breaking around us. We have all this sense of disempowerment. The corporate elites, those who are controlling the money, are very much doing whatever they can to enhance their own self-benefit, but at the expense of the general public, which is unfortunate. The most important thing that a young person can do is look for ways to create community and culture, to revive that, and not buy into this idea that we all hate each other. We can’t judge people by their skin colour and political interests. At the end of the day, we're all humans. We're all earthlings; we're all spiritual beings. We're all in this together; all of us are interdependent beings, meaning we all need to serve each other to survive as an ecosystem. Any effort around creating a positive culture, unity, respect, and love is good because it's really needed. Social media, big corporations, and fake media are really hurting the heart and health of society. We need alternative platforms in place of platforms controlled by self-interested corporations. This is what's happening in the world today; these corporations don't really care about the public. All they care about is their immediate shareholders and sponsors. Anything we can do to break the control that they have over us, over our minds, dollars, our finances is a good direction to take. Things like cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and digital currencies are a good way to get away from the very corrupted, compromised fiat currency-based central bank systems. Of course, with Food for Life Global, as I said, it's not just about feeding people; it's about creating unity in the world. We're not your average food relief organisation; we're using food as a way to unite people and to promote the idea that, "hey, we're earthlings, we're spiritual beings, we're all brothers and sisters. I love you; here's a plate of food." One of the things that we can all agree on is we may have differences of opinion, but when there's a birthday, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, we're all happily sitting around the table as a family unit. Food is the great uniter, so anything involving pure food, food which is free from violence and prepared with loving intention, is always a good initiative, and anything where we are creating positivity and unity and trying to break the corporate control that's destroying culture right now is good as well.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across that are creating a positive social change?

We have a new project called Kindly, and its whole purpose is to make it easy for people to be kind. It's a purpose-driven social enterprise built on the Polygon blockchain, where we're building applications and tools to enable and empower people to do measurable social impact automatically while they're going about their daily business. If you’re purchasing something from a company that is socially responsible, then the activity of purchasing that product or service will generate an immediate, measurable social impact because of the Kindly ecosystem. The first product we're bringing to market is called the Kindly Social Impact Engine, which will process, track and audit social impact on the blockchain. Essentially, we want to become the supply chain of social impact, and then following that will be what's called a Kindly Search Engine, which is a vertical search engine, where you specifically search for your measurable social impact, so you can see what good you've done today and over a period of time, what cumulative good you or your company has done for the world. That's the Kindly ecosystem, and we have a lot of confidence and excitement about that project.

Another project I'm working on is called the Om Guarantee Certification of Social Good, which is essentially the source of what the Kindly Project stands for. Similarly, it's a certification of social good. Other than that, there are many other great platforms and projects, like Ecology is a good one; they’re also selling social impact. However, it's not recorded on the blockchain, but they're selling social impact. They're making it easy for people to give back in a measurable way. You can see your impact. There is also Gold Standard, that's another one.

THERE ARE QUITE A FEW IMPACT PLATFORMS, AND THIS SPACE IS STARTING TO FILL UP BECAUSE IT'S RESPONDING TO A NEED AND URGING FROM THE YOUNGER GENERATION WHO WANT TO SEE THE WORLD IMPROVE AND BE RESPECTED. YOU WANT COMPANIES TO BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE AND NOT JUST CARE ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE, BUT ABOUT THE EARTH, PEOPLE, AND COMMUNITIES.

This push for social responsibility is coming primarily from the younger generation, so companies are listening to them. Almost anyone starting a business now must include social responsibility, their impact on society, and the communities they serve. This space facilitating, and providing opportunities and solutions for companies and individuals to give back in a measurable way is starting to fill up, and as I said, those are two projects I'm personally involved in, but there are so many now around.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend for our listeners to check out?

The Kindly Project has just started a podcast called Crypto for Humanity. We're bringing on various industry experts to discuss the social impact in their industry and various aspects of the social impact cycle. But there are so many resources out there. Again, this is a great question for ChatGPT; you'd probably find it would give you a whole bunch of books. I don't know if your listeners are using ChatGPT, but it's all about using prompts, so the more specific your prompt is, the more accurate answer you'll get. In terms of books, the first concept to start reading about would be what's called Cause Marketing, that's actually like the granddaddy concept of all of this. Back in the day, I think it was like the late eighties, AMEX was the first corporation to attach charity to their business. It's called Cause Marketing, where you lead with a cause for your marketing, and more and more now that's becoming the reality of doing good business, where you'll not just consider how much profit you make, but the triple bottom line, where you also consider the impact on the planet and people. Mintel has done great research specifically in this area also. If you used a search engine or ChatGPT with prompts such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Cause Marketing, or ESG, you'd come up with a whole list of books to read. There are books like Cause for Concern, Cause Related Marketing, and even Cause Marketing for Dummies if you want to dumb it down!