New volunteer-run project ensures Sudbury’s homeless have access to hot meals | CBC News

Every night, for the past 17 months, Sudbury’s Sikh temple has served hot meals to anyone who shows up to their centre on Regent Street. 

The free meal, affectionately referred to by organizers as a “free kitchen” or “langar” in Punjabi, is served in the temple’s community hall starting at 7:30 p.m.

Now they are extending their generosity beyond their grounds of worship to help people across Sudbury that are most in need. 

The temple has collaborated with the Go-Give Project, a local outreach program, to distribute free hot meals to vulnerable community members around the city. 

The program operates every night from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

Food is getting to the right people, that is something that we were more concerned about.– Karan Badesha, a member of Sudbury’s Sikh temple

Volunteers  with the Go-Give’s nighttime outreach team collect up to 70 packaged meals from the temple, in addition to other non-perishable foods.

The ingredients come through donations from worshippers at the temple, and the meals are prepared by anyone who offers to volunteer at the temple.

Karan Badesha, a spokesperson with the Sikh temple said that distributing food to as many people in the community as possible has been an initiative the temple has always wanted to do. 

“But [we] didn’t have volunteers that were trained to go out,” he said. 

“Food is getting to the right people, that is something that we were more concerned about.” 

Ali Farooq, the program manager with the Go-Give project, says that the result of this initiative, which came about less than two weeks ago has been phenomenal. 

“Everybody has been really enjoying their meals and it’s good nutritious food.” 

Most of the food does go out to people suffering from homelessness. 

“But if anybody does approach the van and asks for food, they can be low income people or even just be a passerby who just wants a meal. We never refuse.”

He said that with the current rise in food costs, the need for a hot meal is crucial. 

However, Badesh pointed out that “despite the [large] number of people who come in for the meals, there’s also more people who are helping to put together the meals.”

He said that at the end of day, the Sikh temple is a place of worship, and the people believe in the Sikh principle of putting aside a tenth of their income to donate toward charity. 

Some days, Karanbir noted that the temple is forced to put out calls on social media, asking people not to bring in more food so as to avoid any food waste. 

The temple also provides bottled water, juices and snacks for the Go-Give volunteers to distribute if the hot meals run out.