The Director

Paul Rodney Turner

Also known as Priya Vrata, a name given to him by his spiritual teachers, Paul is the international director of Food for Life and the founder of Food for Life Global, the world headquarters for the charity.

Paul was born in Sydney, Australia in 1963 and grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. At the age of 19, Paul left home to live a reclusive life in Sydney’s Blue Mountains. Soon after he joined an ashram of similar spiritual seekers and took a vow of celibacy. For the next 14 years Paul, now known as Priyavrata das by his fellow Vaisnava monks, studied the ancient teachings of the Vedas as taught by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

In the early years of Paul’s life as a monk he learned vegetarian cooking and was soon cooking the Sunday feasts for the Sydney Hare Krishna temple, sometimes for as many as 300 guests. His desire to focus exclusively on India’s Vedic culture of hospitality inspired him to start his own outreach project. At the time, Food for Life was a fledgling food relief organization with programs in Australia, USA, Western Europe and India.

Over the next 25 years, Paul traveled to more than 50 countries throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, helping to inspire and set up new Food for Life projects and train volunteers. He also raised millions of dollars in funds; appeared on television and radio, and met with numerous government officials. In 1994, Paul wrote the official Food for Life training manual and in 1996 he wrote, sung and produced the first official FFL music CD called Prasada Sevaya (Service to holy food)

From 1999 to 2003 Paul was a Council Member and Magazine Editor for IVU (International Vegetarian Union), the official umbrella organization for vegetarianism worldwide.

During Paul’s travels he visited three war zones–Chechnya, Sarajevo and Sukhumi. In 2005, Paul led an international team of volunteers to set up makeshift kitchens in villages across Sri Lanka in response to the Asian tsunami, where volunteers served freshly cooked vegetarian meals to tens of thousands.

In 2010, Paul published an instructional book for volunteers wishing to start their own Food for Life project, called How to Build a Great Food Relief. In the following year he released a new edition of the Food for Life training manual.

Paul is also a billiards instructor and in 2004 he invented the world’s the Billiard Aim Trainer, now considered the number one aiming trainer in the world. He also authored two books on billiards, The YOGA of POOL and the World’s Best Aiming System for Billiards.

Blog: www.priya108.com

Highlights:

Authored How to Build a Great Food Relief (Published in 2010)
Authored FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul (ebook)
Official Food for Life Training Manual - Second Edition (To be published in 2010)
Wrote and published International Food for Life Newsletters since 1990
Authored The YOGA of POOL – Secrets to becoming a Champion in Billiards and in Life (published 2010)
Authored World’s Best Aiming System for Billiards (published 2010)
Developed and designed the Food for Life Web site. http://www.ffl.org – Currently maintaining
Invented the Billiard Aim Trainer (BAT) in 2006
Designed and published Training/promotional supplements to FFL manual, guidelines, flyers, prospectus, posters, etc.)
Co-Produced a 10-minute fund raising video for the charity
Wrote, sung and produced FFL music CD Prasada Sevaya (for fund raising)
Conducted volunteer training seminars (100 training seminars in 29 countries and regions of the world)
Gave public lectures at Food conferences (Presentations in US and abroad) – Current
Publishing (Articles for vegetarian magazines and newspapers)
Elected Council Member of IVU (International Vegetarian Union in 1999 – 2003)
Editor and producer of International Vegetarian Union magazine (1999 – 2003)