Sikh Dharamsal of San Antonio, a local Sikh house of worship, will donate $250,000 to the San Antonio Food Bank by the end of April.
The local gurdwara originally set out to raise $75,000 in virtual donations through its Together We Can campaign by April 30th.
Gurpaul Singh, the director of community outreach for Sikh Dharamsal and his uncle G.P Singh organized the Together We Can campaign.
The campaign mobilizes Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims to join hands with Sikhs in making donations.
As of April 27th, the San Antonio gurdwara raised $247,938, which was more than triple the original goal, according to SACurrent.
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This hefty donation is enough to purchase more than 1 million pounds of food.
With more than 120,000 San Antonians depending on local food distributions from the COVID-19 pandemic, Gurpaul Singh told NEWS4SA, “We don’t want anyone in San Antonio to go hungry.”
“Part of our mandate just through our belief system and our faith is, that everyone should be entitled to food and food security and so it’s a very important central part of our belief system, Singh said.
That is why Sikh Dharamsal had been offering free meals as part of their services every Sunday called langar. The gurdwara had opened doors to all faiths and religion.
However, when it was announced that houses of worship should provide online services instead of in-person worship, Sikh Dharamsal decided to combine the idea of seva, a core tenet of Sikh faith that resembles selfless service, and langar.
Singh told SACurrent that the local house of worship were just doing “what we can to positively help the community in need.”
Eric Cooper, President and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, told Express News how much he appreciated the local gurdwara’s kindness. “I don’t know all the principles of their faith, but I know the principles that they exercise. It’s love. It’s service. It’s selflessness. It’s sharing, sharing and caring. They are just amazing people. They set an example for a lot of other faiths.”
When Express News asked whether Singh expected this much money to be collected, he answered, “I didn’t think we would be able to make it to $200,000, and now it is almost a quarter of a million.”
Singh continued to express his gratitude for the various communities that chipped in. “Folks got involved from the neighborhood, from our business circle, from the military, from the Indian community, from the Jewish community, from the children’s schools.
The Sikh Dharamsal of San Antonio fundraise will be accepting donations until this Thursday.
If you want to help San Antonio Food Bank, visit this website.
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