MAPLE’s End-of-Year Fundraiser
The Monastic Academy asks your help with this year’s operating expenses, like our food. A gift of $36 can feed a monastic trainee for an entire week! Please support this flourishing and wholesome community—and help create the next generation of wise, loving leaders.
If you feel called to donate any amount, you can click here.
(We suggest a default giving amount of $36 to help us reach our goal of $10,000, which would cover a quarter of the yearly food budget.)
We are extraordinarily fortunate to have generous donors help fund specific areas like the Monastic Academy Village and our new meditation hall. But our basic operations budget, such as for food and kitchen supplies, is also incredibly important—and necessary! So we’re focusing on closing our operating budget gap for this end-of-year ask.
We are deeply grateful for the food we receive each day, which we can afford through donations. At $3 per meal, you could feed a resident for a week with just $36 (breakfast and lunch for six days). I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent $36 on a single Uber Eats delivery just for myself, back when I lived in California! 😬 Compared to that, your offering will provide so much more, for more people.
What are some benefits of giving food to those in monastic training?
- Practicing Generosity. People become what they do. By making small and meaningful decisions each day, we affirm our values. Giving to monastics is a great way to practice this virtue.
- Supporting Contemplative Practice. The monastics training at the Monastic Academy do everything for the sake of their spiritual practice—whether it’s chanting, working, meditating… even sleeping and eating. We live and breathe a spiritual lifestyle for the sake of caring for all beings.
- Contributing to Ethical Choices. At the Monastic Academy, ethical choices grow out of the considerable time, thought, and energy devoted to them. We buy vegan and also grow supplemental herbs and veggies on our own land.
- Feeling Connected. Food connects us through time, space, belief, and experience. By offering us a meal, we can feel a little closer to each other.
We do our best to feed our residents wholesome, vegan meals using fresh produce.
Our garden, which we started a year ago, has been flourishing. We harvest kale, beans, potatoes, swiss chard, arugula, beets, herbs, tomatoes, and squash. By getting our own hands dirty and working with the earth directly, it’s not only nourishing our bodies but nourishing our minds.
We spend about $40,000 each year on kitchen and food supplies for our ~20 residents and ~5 apprentices. We also feed over 100 guests each year!
Our vibrant community is kept healthy through a grateful relation to its food. We give thanks for any donations and garden harvests at each meal. We also use a special offering bowl, to give a little piece back to the earth and to honor the beings who produced and labored for this food.
Our meals are a special meditation period—a chance to ground into our practice, to cultivate presence, and to connect to all life through what we eat and how we eat.
We’d love to have your presence in this meal ceremony each day through your offering. Contribute to a sacred relationship to food and to finding the spiritual in the mundane, cultivated each day by our monastic residents. Give some of your life’s fruit so that we may live ours fully, in devotion and with grace.
Here are some suggested options for giving:
- $6: Feed a monastic for a day (breakfast and lunch)
- $18: Feed a monastic for three days
- $36: Feed a monastic for a week. We suggest this amount as a good default!
- $60: Feed the entire community breakfast
- $120: Feed the entire community for breakfast and lunch
- $840: Feed the community for an entire week
- $3,600: Feed the community for an entire month
Any amount at all would be incredible and appreciated! You’re welcome to give a one-time gift or become a monthly supporter.
Would you support our community through a donation? Help us make our $10,000 goal!
Your generosity enables us to continue to run transformative programs for residents, apprentices, and guests of the Monastic Academy in Vermont. Your donation will directly support our mission to create trustworthy leaders—leaders who can be trusted with facing the world’s problems.
Wishing for the happiness and well-being of all living things,
Renshin
