New York: The Sikh Centre of New York prepared and packaged more than 30,000 home-cooked meals for Americans in coronavirus self-isolation.
As reported earlier by the Sikh Siyasat News, the Sikh community was approached by New York’s Mayor office for food packages that were handed out to several distributing federal agencies in the area. Monday morning onwards the authorities started collecting food from the Gurdwara Sahib in order to deliver free food to COVID-19 affected people in New York City, one of the worst affected cities in the US by a coronavirus. This food will also be provided to people in Old Age Homes.
Sikh sewadars are following proper food hygiene practices were observed while the food was prepared such as maintaining social distancing and using face masks and gloves.
S. Himat Singh, coordinator of Sikh Coordination Committee East Coast said “The ”Sewa” provided by the Sikh volunteers is a vegetarian meal comprising of dry fruits, rice, and lentils.”
“The meals were prepared on Sunday and were packaged and loaded for delivery. The distribution starts on Monday in the morning, by local authorities. Volunteers who prepared and packaged the meal had a medical check and have been approved by physicians and health authorities,” he added.
The distributing agencies will provide the food packages to the elderly or people having trouble getting food at the supermarket, specially-abled, homeless and single parents who are looking after their kids and can’t go out, he further added.
Food items that have been previously donated to the Gurudwara are being used for this initiative and even the Gurudwara funds are being used.
United Sikhs, an NGO based across the United States, also made an appeal to people from all walks of life to donate generously.
Several Sikh volunteers from the East, West Coast, and the Mid West of the United States are ready with an infrastructure to help agencies across the country. They are geared with free food, shelter at Gurudwara”s and even delivering essentials and medicines for the homeless and needy.