Imagine a door that is wide open...ready to welcome you to a whole new panoramic experience of gratitude, generosity and graciousness....welcome to the D.C. Karma Kitchen!
Every once a month the Karma Kitchen at D.C. opens its doors to welcome guests to dine with them in a space that reverberates with the magic of its 3 guiding principles - Transaction to Trust, Isolation to Community and Scarcity to Abundance; and this finds beautiful expression through its core volunteers - Aakruti, Arvind, Aya and Krishna.

Here are some magical stories from the D.C chapter

Arvind and Neha's introduction to Karma Kitchen - A transaction to Trust transformation:
In the midst of an online search, Neha, Arvind's wife came across Service Space website and the very next day she happened to meet Nipun at the green festival in D.C. A dinner was arranged with Nipun and few other friends. Arvind's transaction mind was racing fast - why dinner with a stranger..there must be some catch...and so on, however he reluctantly agreed. As they all shared their inspirational stories at the dinner table...Arvind found himself opening up and soaking in the experience. Arvind felt moved to take the leap from a transaction oriented mindset to that of Trust and Karma Kitchen was the perfect place to experience this transformation hearts-on and share it too.

Aakruti's Love and Light story:
That Sunday at Karma Kitchen a couple from Baltimore had walked in. In the flow of their conversation with Aakruti they shared that it was their 8th wedding anniversary Aakruti wanted to make their day even more special and found that the deemed gift for 8th year is pottery. The tag box at the D.C. Karma kitchen is a treasure retrieve for such occasions. In it she found a candle holder with candle and beautiful decorations and also a stone with 'Love' inscribed on it. She tagged them with these two gifts and they were touched deeply by this act of generosity coming that too from a stranger. Their anniversary was now a Karma Kitchen community moment! Karma Kitchen helps nurture generosity in volunteers as well its guests...Aakruti shares her delight.

Krishna - Got Compassion?
A group of youngsters would come to Karma Kitchen regularly and exhibit exploitative behavior. They would order excessively, waste food and leave pennies after they were done. The challenge question for the volunteers was 'how to handle this situation most compassionately?' One of the volunteers suggested that the group should be offered to volunteer with Karma Kitchen so that they would experience and understand the dynamics of Karma Kitchen. One of the girls from the group agreed to volunteer with Karma Kitchen. On the day she had come in to volunteer, her group also came in to eat. They exhibited the same behavior and left the place. At the end of the day, the girl from the group was a different person....she came to Krishna and offered to pay the bill for her friends and also apologized for the behavior of her friends. Every Karma Kitchen is a transformational experience - prides Krishna.

Aya - Of Tsunami fund raising and the challenge of everyday generosity...
Aya was urged to get involved and help her fellowmen in Japan during the greatest Tsunami ever in Japan 3 year ago. Aya approached Karma Kitchen to do the fundraising in the Karma Kitchen space. Karma Kitchen's outreach was so effective that it drew 2 groups of Japanese people inquiring about the fund raising. Aya was able to raise
1000 dollars and it was donated to the residents of a needy town in Japan.
Karma Kitchen's generosity resonates with Aya, that being generous for generosity's sake and not to gain/get anything out of it and also whether or not there is a need for generosity.

With intentions running so deep and strong, grateful actions find expression and loving kindness blooms...the volunteers at the D.C. Karma Kitchen welcome you to experience this!