Re:Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking
by dmos62 on Friday June 28, 2019 @03:43AM
(#20302269)
You might be thinking of Langar [0]. It's a practice from Sikhism where "a free meal is served to all the visitors, without distinction of religion, caste, gender, economic status or ethnicity. The free meal is always vegetarian". In many ways, Sikhism is a pretty great culture. One of my dreams is to run a Langar one day.
Re:Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking
by DoreenMichele on Friday June 28, 2019 @04:01AM
(#20302340)
This was done on a public sidewalk, not in a building. Other than that, yes, it's possible. That fits. Thank you.
Re:Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking
by arshneet on Friday June 28, 2019 @04:31AM
(#20302474)
Langar doesn't have to be in a Gurdwara. The purpose of the meal is to serve food to all (especially the needy), and for even the privileged ones in the society to sit down and have the same food in the same conditions (even the richest person should be in the same queue and have Langar with people from all strata of society) to promote a sense of equality. One of the major Langar charities, The Midland Langar Seva Society (https://www.midlandlangarseva.org/), does it on the streets, as do many others. The first ever Langar by Guru Nanak (the founder of the religion) was on the street as well.
But, it's kind of hard to tell (without more details) whether what you had was langar. And, it doesn't really matter whether it is Langar, because it serves the same purpose, and the people doing that are definitely doing a service to the society the same way.
When it comes to using charity as a tool to lure people into some ideology is what puts me off. Ideally, charity should be done to help others, and not for self-promotion or for the promotion of an ideology is what I've learnt as a Sikh, and would like to retain the same belief even if I'm not a Sikh some day.
Re:Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking
by DoreenMichele on Friday June 28, 2019 @04:42AM
(#20302532)
I've done a little searching and can't find anything that confirms details. It was some years ago. I have no idea if it still goes on.
I've really enjoyed your comments in this discussion. Thank you for your contribution here.
Re:Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking
by ficklepickle on Friday June 28, 2019 @02:05PM
(#20307147)
It happens every week in Vancouver on East Hastings street.
Kind, non-judgemental, not pushing any agenda. Just quietly doing a good thing.
I ate it a few times when I was in bad shape. It was usually the best/only thing I ate that day.
This article plus some of the comments here make me think of the best homeless meal service in San Diego when I was homeless there. My old homeless blog simply lists them as The Vegans and I think that's how they self identified. My impression was they were some kind of church group, but unlike most church-affiliated homeless services, they never identified their organization that I know of.
They served a meal once a week. It was all vegetarian and it was hands down the best free meal I had as a homeless person. They also let you take a couple of sack lunches with vegetarian sandwiches, like peanut butter, plus snacks.
Many free meals involve listening to a sermon. A lot of organizations treat homeless people pretty bad while supposedly trying to help them.
There was none of the usual crap with this group. They also gave away free clothes or blankets or whatever they had.
I wish far more homeless services met a similar standard.