18-Hour Shifts, 1 Lakh Meals: Bangla Sahib Gurudwara Has Been Feeding People Throughout Lockdown

With the announcement of the nationwide lockdown in India, the many homeless people on the streets of Delhi suddenly had nowhere to go, especially for food. Initially, the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara started distributing meals, cooking over 40,000 meals in its kitchen for the poor and the hungry. However, the Gurudwara soon realised that they weren’t making enough meals and so pushed it to 80,000 meals and then to 1,00,000. Bangla Sahib has kept the k...Read More

Anuj TiwariUpdated: May 23, 2020, 16:54 IST

With the announcement of the nationwide lockdown in India, the many homeless people on the streets of Delhi suddenly had nowhere to go, especially for food. Initially, the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara started distributing meals, cooking over 40,000 meals in its kitchen for the poor and the hungry. However, the Gurudwara soon realised that they weren’t making enough meals and so pushed it to 80,000 meals and then to 1,00,000. Bangla Sahib has kept the kitchens running, with the help of about four dozen men who sleep in the temple’s guesthouse. To save time commuting to and from the temple, and avoid the risk of infecting loved ones, they haven’t seen their families since the lockdown began March 25. Here are some images of how people in the Gurudwara kitchen working 18-hour-long shifts for providing food to the hungry and poor.

Head cook, Balbir Singh, lights the flame at 3 a.m. so that 35,000 lunches are ready for pickup by 9:00 AM. “If we serve at this time, God will give us more. It’s a give and take system,” Singh said.

The Bangla Sahib Gurdwara has remained open through wars and plagues, serving thousands of people, simple vegetarian food.?

During India's ongoing coronavirus lockdown, about four dozen people have kept the temple's kitchen open, cooking up to 100,000 meals a day, that the New Delhi government distributes at shelters and drop-off points throughout the city.

Sikh volunteers put the dough into a machine that makes chapati, thin unleavened bread, in the kitchen hall of the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara in New Delhi.

Head cook Balbir Singh stirs an enormous ladle through potato and soybean stew, simmering with ghee and coriander in a giant cook pot.?

In colourful turbans and cloth bandanas tied over their noses and mouths, they work in the industrial kitchen in 18-hour shifts.

Bangla Sahib is the largest of New Delhi’s 10 gurdwaras, whose kitchens together form a vital part of the city’s strategy to feed the poor during the pandemic.

Bangla Sahib, which usually prepares around half a million meals per week using donated ingredients and equipment, is quickly ramping up to produce six times more, Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.

Sikh volunteers take out cooked chapatis, cooking up to 1,00,000 meals a day that the New Delhi government distributes at shelters and drop-off points throughout the city.

Sikh volunteers make chapatis, thin unleavened bread, in the kitchen hall of the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.

Anuj Tiwari

Anuj Tiwari writes stories for SEO and is a Youtube wizard. An engineer turned social media champ, he keeps a track of all that goes around the world. His interest areas include historic events, political and social-sciences.

18-Hour Shifts, 1 Lakh Meals: Bangla Sahib Gurudwara Has Been Feeding People Throughout Lockdown

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