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Sikhs Organize a Langar For a Nearby Community.
11/04/2005
Gurujot Singh Khalsa, SikhNet
On Saturday Oct. 29th our group of Sikhs decided to reach out to the local community and serve hot food. In the spirit of the Sikh tradition of Langar (community kitchen) in which all people share a meal together regardless of religion, race, culture, gender, or social standing, the SEVA (Sikh Española Volunteer Association) worked to prepare a meal to share with the local community. We teamed up with Interfaith L.E.A.P. (Leadership Empowerment for All People) to hold a meal at the John Hyson Family Resource Center in Chimayó (town near Española). A Government service, The Food Drop, provided most of the food supplies. We had about 20 volunteers who prepared, served, and cleaned up. The food was prepared in the Española Gurdwara kitchen.
From left: frying tortillas, chopping vegetables, washing dishes, Patwinder, head cook, giving instructions.
Interfaith L.E.A.P. serves food supplies to the needy every Thursday. This was the first effort to served cooked food, as well as doing it on a weekend. They estimated about 100 people would come. After we prepared the food and doing Ardas we arrived at the John Hyson School in Chimayo, and there was no one there. We had 8 trays of enchiladas, and industrial pots of beans and rice, enough food for 100-120 people. We were getting concerned that the food would all go to waste. Slowly some people trickled in, and throughout a few hours about 25 people had come. We decided to find another way to get the word out, so we wrote “free food” on a piece of cardboard and went to the road nearby and advertised. We served maybe another 10 people and still had lots of food that was still warm.
From left: doing Ardas (prayer) over food in the cars, serving food at John Hyson
Then someone had the idea to serve the food at the Santurio de Chimayo (a nearby historical church). Being as that it was Saturday there were a lot of visitors, and tourists. We served the food out of the back of my Volvo wagon in the church parking lot. We called every passerby to come have some. We served another 40 people and decided to leave, because it was well past lunchtime and interest had dropped. In total we served about 80 people and ended up with only 1 tray of enchiladas extra that we split amongst ourselves.
From left: community enjoying enchiladas, serving food out of a car in Church parking lot
”We are pleased with the process and result of our first endeavor to serve a community meal. S.E.V.A. looks forward to continuing with our resolve to help the local community and to serve meals in the spirit of the Sikh tradition.”Says, Prabhu, one of SEVA’s organizers.
We plan to be able to serve more needy people, and have more advertising in their next effort which might be this Christmas were they are looking into the possibility of serving 300 homeless people.
Visit the SEVA blog
SikhSewa.blogspot.com
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