Every week for the past three years: classes, kitchens, books, retreats. Here’s what that looks like, in numbers and in stories.
Every December, devotees across NYC, New Jersey, and the surrounding boroughs join a month-long push called the Marathon — a tradition in the ISKCON movement going back 50 years.
Our chapter alone distributed 12,457 books in the 2025 marathon, through weekly book tables at NYU, Jersey City, and Newport, and through street sankirtan in Manhattan. Each book is offered with a conversation — the point was never just the number.
Govinda's, the temple restaurant at ISKCON Brooklyn, has served sanctified prasadam to New Yorkers of every faith for decades. Every meal is cooked in the temple kitchen and offered to the Deities before being served.
On a typical weekday we serve around 340 meals; Sundays, after the feast, over 500. No one is ever turned away hungry — a long-standing ISKCON tradition.
Newport on Fridays. Jersey City on Saturdays. ISKCON Brooklyn on Sundays. Three standing gatherings every week of every year — that's 156 classes in 2025.
Our Friday Newport group started as four friends in a living room; it now hosts 25–30 devotees weekly. The growth is the point — scripture spreads by word of mouth, one invitation at a time.
Four times a year we pause everything and spend a weekend upstate — no phones, no screens, just morning kirtan, philosophy, hiking, and the community we've built.
For many attendees, it's their first real taste of concentrated spiritual practice. Alumni consistently call it the most transformative weekend of their year.
Four friends started meeting in a Newport apartment for weekly Gita study.
Added Saturday class in Jersey City and began weekly book distribution at NYU.
22 devotees joined our first weekend retreat in the Catskills.
Crossed 10,000 books distributed in a single calendar year.
Launched the monthly festival at ISKCON Brooklyn — now averaging 80+ attendees.
52 classes a year across 3 locations, 4 quarterly retreats, 12 monthly festivals, and 340 daily prasadam meals.
Every class, every book, every meal is the work of volunteers. There’s a rung on the ladder for every level of time you have.