December 01, 2015: TWO of Plymouth's most prominent Sikhs celebrated the birth anniversary of religious leader Guru Nanak by sharing a meal with volunteers and guests at a homeless charity.
Chaz Singh, a Plymouth city councillor, and his wife, Sarah, visited Devonport House, home to The Salvation Army, last week to enjoy a meal with guests in celebration of Guru Nanak's 546th birth anniversary.
The pair cooked homemade pakora - a fried vegetable snack using herbs, spices, green peas, chips and bread - and a chickpea chutney.
The sharing of free food with others, regardless of background, is one of the main principles of the Sikh faith and is known as langar.
Chaz, who was up until the early hours of the morning travelling back from London, described the event as a huge success.
"We got back from London around 3am and had to be up by 9.30am to head to Morrisons to start getting all the ingredients ready," he explained.
"We were planning to host this event at Broadreach House in Stonehouse, but had to change our plans at the last minute and move everything to The Salvation Army instead.
"We cooked all the food, said grace - or ardaas - and enjoyed a really nice meal. There were around 20 to 30 people in attendance while we were there, but we cooked enough to accommodate a further 60 to 70 who visit during the evening.
"Everybody who came along and asked if they could try it, I explained what everything was and I explained why it was we were doing this. We made sure people knew what langar was about.
"People were really quite interested and we encouraged everyone to at least try the food before we left."