Temples Shop Online for Food to Feed Hungry

April 29, 2005

Source: Reuters

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-04-29T160914Z_01_SP245969_RTRIDST_0_ODD-ODD-INDIA-TEMPLES-DC.XML

On April 29, 2005 Reuters reported, "India's temples, which feed millions of people for free every day, making them some of the world's biggest food buyers, are going online for real-time prices to beat profiteers, a newspaper reported on Thursday. India's richest temple, the Hindu Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, began checking prices at online commodities exchanges this month to beat mark-ups from traditional suppliers of up to 50 percent, said the Economic Times. The temple, near the southern city of Madras, spends about 3 billion rupees ($70 million) a year to provide free meals, including almost 40 million laddoos -- fried sweets often used for temple offerings. Workers use online exchanges to buy and set prices for everything from cashews to cooking oil for the temple's vast cauldrons. Sikhism's holiest site, the Golden Temple in the northern city of Amritsar, and other shrines and temples around India are likely to follow suit, said the Times."