By Unzela Khan | MyLondon | Britain |
A group of Londoners have been feeding the city for free since the last eight years – as Langar week approaches, the Sikh community is out in full force to get meals ready for anyone and everyone.
Langar week is a time dedicated to raising awareness about the Sikh concept of ‘seva’ – to help. The week is a way to highlight to others that there is free food available to anyone who is in need.
Speaking to MyLondon, organiser Taj Ghatoura, 40, from East London explained that he and his friends created the Sikh Empowerment Voluntary Association team eight years ago to help the less fortunate.
He said: “Seva means to serve and to help, so we do weekly feeds in Ilford and have been doing that for the last eight years. We feed the homeless and vulnerable and it’s especially important these days with the cost of living crisis.
“On Tuesdays from 7:30pm to 8:30pm we serve hot meals, snacks, donuts and pastries from donations sponsors. It’s all vegetarian food so anyone open to it.
“We’ll have pizza one day and noodles the next, we like to keep a variety. Langar is for anyone, like people in hardship.
“Langar has been around for 500 years, when Guru Nanak was a child he went to the market and saw hungry people, he thought the greatest profit was to feed them – this is what we been taught.”
Langar week (Oct 2-8) is a global campaign that feeds millions to raise awareness of the service. It takes part around the world and in Ilford alone 2,000 meals are served in one day.
Read the full story here.
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