Queues for the Hare Krishna $3 Lunch have been snaking out the door of OUSA Clubs and Societies Centre every lunchtime since the start of semester.
Jane Ma runs the vegan lunch, singing and calling people “sweetheart”. Monday is pasta, Tuesday is veggies and rice, Wednesday is soup and fresh bread and Thursday is lentils, veggies and rice.
When I talked to Jane the Tuesday meal was down to just rice as it had been so busy. Jane was pairing rice with pakoras, samosas, rice and broccoli for the stragglers who turned up at 2 pm.
Jane said $3 Lunch is more popular than last year, it’s “gone crazy”. They’re currently feeding around 300 people in two hours. “It gets more popular every year. Everybody loves it so they tell their friends. You see someone come in alone one day, the next day they come back with three more people.”
OUSA Recreation Officer Michaela Hayes resisted my suggestion that $3 lunch would one day become too big for the Clubs and Societies Centre. Despite the long lines at the moment, “there’re natural peaks and dips throughout the year”.
Jane started $3 lunch in 1997. “I came here to retire, maybe to teach vegetarian cooking.” Someone pipes up, “retire? That’s a joke”.
“I love it,” she says. “It’s full on. I thought I would be living on the bank of the Ganges by now.” But “I get a lot of joy out of feeding people and developing relationships. Over the years you become friends with people.” She gets to “be there for people and let them know there’s someone who really cares in every aspect of their lives”. It’s about “genuine connection. I’m certainly not here for the money. My motivation was to show a better way”.
According to Jane, people keep coming back because they “appreciate it as much as we love doing it. There’s a lot of love here. It’s not just about serving food; we’re serving love. I want to show people we care and create a special space people can feel loved by a mum”.
“The food is blessed,” she goes on to say. “Everyone who eats it passes their exams – that’s what I pray for during exam time, and so far I haven’t had anyone come and tell me otherwise.”
A student I interrupted eating some broccoli earlier that lunchtime told me he keeps coming back “because Jane’s beautiful smile makes my day”.
However, not everyone is so positive about the lunch. “They [the Hare Krishnas] attempt to mould people in the image of their own warped ideology through forceful advice and meals high in carbohydrates,” said Edan O’Hanrahanrahan, a student who stopped going to the lunch halfway through last year after Jane told him he wasn’t smiling enough.