Australian Sikh Community Working Around The Clock To Deliver Free Food To People In Isolation

The Australian Sikh community has been working behind the scenes to ensure vulnerable or financially unstable people can have something to eat.

Scores of people across Australia have been let go by their employer or might be struggling to make ends meet as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

For weeks, the Sikh Volunteers Australia (SVA) Facebook group has been updated with photos and videos of the meals they are cooking and delivering to people across Melbourne.

They've been working around the clock to buy supplies, cook and deliver thousands of meals to those who have been impacted by the outbreak of Covid-19.

SVA member Manpreet Singh told The Hindustan Times: "The initiative was started three years ago in South East part of Melbourne and we have been serving free food packs to those in need, like elderly, single parent or people in self isolation.

"We have also started a new service for international students now and we are expecting the deliveries to go up."

They've also started selling basic over-the-counter medicines to groups like the elderly, low-income families and the disabled, in case they're not able to purchase those things themselves.

Sikh Volunteers Australia/Facebook

The group has been aided by financial donations, which keep them operating, or with food donations that they can then redistribute.

They has been inspirational in helping people through crises before.

An Indian restaurant in Gippsland, Victoria, was inspired by SVA and started handing out free meals for people impacted by the bushfires that erupted at the tail end of 2019 and start of this year.

Kanwaljit Singh and his wife Kamaljit Kaur, who own the Desi Grill in Bairnsdale, said they felt a 'duty' to help their fellow locals, and have been cooking curry and rice to be handed out to people living in temporary shelters by Melbourne-based charity Sikh Volunteers Australia.

Desi Grill Bairnsdale

Singh told SBS Punjabi: "It's terrible out there. People are severely affected and they need food and shelter. It's our duty to serve them when they need us the most.

"We follow the Sikh way of life. We are just doing what other Australians are doing today, and that is to serve and pray for the people who have been hit hard by these terrible bushfires."

Singh, who has lived in the area for six years, and his team managed to help volunteers cook 500 meals on New Year's Eve.

He continued: "We have the capacity to cook for up to 1,000 people in a day.

"But it all depends on how much is needed in the field."

This is the spirit we need as we continue to battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Topics: News, Inspirational, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie