The Sikh New Year festival, Vaisakhi took place this week (April 14) and to celebrate colleagues from the Peterborough Metro Bank organised a food donation drive for The Trussell Trust.
“As the UK’s best community bank, Metro Bank is integral to local fundraising events in Peterborough”, explains Store Manager, Asad Bachiani. “We reached out to the leading Gurdwara (Sikh temple) to ask that they encourage the local community to support our food drive to help celebrate one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar.
“We have collected 115 food items for the Trussell Trust – which supports a nationwide network of 1,200 food banks providing emergency food. One of the fundamental traditions of Sikhism, is for the temple community kitchen (langar) to serve meals free of charge to anyone - irrespective of religion, gender, race or economic status, so supporting the work of the Trussell Trust helps honour this tradition.”
In the UK, more than 14 million people are living in poverty – including 4.5 million children. Between April 2019 and March 2020, the Trussell Trust provided a record 1.9 million food supplies to people in crisis, an 18% increase on the previous year and during the coronavirus pandemic food banks have seen need rise even further.