Sikh community donates $75,000 to Edmonton’s Food Bank
Posted By Kevin Maimann/EXAMINER STAFF
Posted 4 days ago
Each and every (person) on this earth should be fed.
Edmonton’s Sikh community stepped up with a hefty holiday donation for Edmonton’s Food Bank last week.
The group gave over $75,000 and four tonnes of food in celebration of the 540th anniversary of the birth of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism.
“The response was tremendous,” says radio host Gursharan Buttar of the Punjabi Media Association, who used a radio-a-thon to gather donations.
The city’s Sikh community has now given over $200,000 to Edmonton’s Food Bank over the last three years, taking donations at all four local Sikh temples, or Gurdwaras.
Buttar says sharing with the needy is a key aspect of Sikhism.
“That is one of the fundamentals of Sikhism, that nobody should go to bed hungry,” he says. “Each and every (person) on this earth should be fed.”
Food bank resource development co-ordinator Tamisan Bencz-Knight says the donation is a significant contribution to the food bank’s $900,000 Christmas drive goal.
“What’s wonderful about the Sikh and the Punjabi communities supporting Edmonton’s Food Bank is that, like many communities, they send money overseas back home. But they also have taken the stance that this is their home as well, and so they do believe in making sure that they contribute locally as well as internationally,” she says.
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