6 religious places in India with community kitchens that serve food to thousands every day

The Golden Temple in Amritsar has a long and well-documented history of langars, where thousands of people are fed every day.

The communal kitchen at the Golden Temple prepares at least 2,00,000 rotis (Indian flat bread), 1.5 tonnes of dal (lentil soup) and other dishes to feed 1,00,000 people every day.

Keeping the demand in mind, the huge kitchen at the Golden Temple uses 100 LPG cylinders and 5,000 kilos of fuel every day.

Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna, who hails from Amritsar, makes a point of helping out at the Golden Temple's community kitchen whenever he's in town.

The kitchens at the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha serve 100,000 people on a festival day and for about 25,000 on a normal day. It is said that the goddess Mahalaxmi cooks in the kitchen herself, and if she's displeased with the food that's cooked even today, a dog miracurously appears in the temple grounds.

The Vaishno Devi Shrine Board in Jammu serves fresh food to lakhs of pilgrims every day through their bhandaras, which are set up at the checkpoints on the way to the temple.

The Dharamthala Manjunath Temple in Udupi, Karnataka has an annadanam kitchen where 70 quintals of rice, 15 quintals of vegetables and 2000 coconuts are used to cook food for the pilgrims every day.

The huge serving hall at the Dharamthala Manjunath Temple in Udupi was made to serve 2500 people at a time.

The Sri Sai Sansthan Prasadalay in Shirdi, Maharashtra serves nearly 40,000 meals every day. The kitchens here are solar powered, with four rooftops covered with solar panels.

The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh serves annadanam to pilgrims every day. This Vaishnavite temple is one of the most popular pilgrimage spots in the country.

The communal kitchen at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Tirupati is run on Vedic principle, according to which, offering food without expecting anything in return is the highest form of worship.