“Convey a Warm Heart with Invigorating Temple Food!”

Box Lunches from Jinkwansa’s “Temple Food Outreach”

At 4 a.m. on Oct. 22, the kitchen of Jinkwansa Temple in Seoul was filled with the busy hands of nuns and lay volunteers preparing ten kinds of temple food to feed 410 people. They were doing this for Jinkwansa’s “temple food outreach” program to fulfill their social responsibility. Since the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in February, Jinkwansa has been preparing box lunches while observing strict hygiene regulations for medical staff and underprivileged children. They perform this service of compassion to offer warm solace to local citizens who are experiencing difficulties.

By 10 a.m., all box lunches had been prepared and wrapped in attractive colors and designs. The ten side dishes were: rice wrapped in lotus leaf, curled mallow soup, braised tofu, seasoned taro stems, seasoned spinach, mustard green kimchi, angelica tree shoot jangajji, white radish jangajji, fried gompi chips (costaria costata), and stir-fried green seaweed. Tangerines and tomatoes were included to round out the meal. Ju Sang-suk, the temple’s office manager, said, “We began cooking at dawn, but actual preparation began a week ago. The chestnuts used for the rice wrapped in lotus leaf were manually peeled one by one by monastics and lay volunteers. Planned to boost immunity, these dishes tried to provide as much protein as possible from veggie sources.”

Of the 410 box lunches prepared for the day, 200 were delivered to the elderly at Eunpyeong Senior Welfare Center, and 210 to the medical staff at Eunpyeong Community Health Center (hereafter the Health Center). Nuns from Jinkwansa visited the Health Center and handed out the box lunches themselves. Kim Mi-sun, Infectious Disease Control Manager of the Health Center, expressed her gratitude, saying, “This is the second time we have received box lunches prepared by Jinkwansa. All our medical staff were moved by the taste of the temple food. Today we were waiting for them again with great anticipation. I can feel the sincere devotion of the monastics and volunteers deep in my heart.”