With a number of community organisations coming forward to help the needy during the last seven weeks of Alert Level 4 and 3 lockdowns, New Zealand Sikh Games, an organisation hosting national-level sports competition in the country has done ten rounds of free food drives till this week.
NZ Sikh Games was established last year and hosted its first-ever sports competition in November 2019 that saw 1500 athletes and sportsmen and women participating from different corners of New Zealand and overseas.
The organisation applied and received the status of ‘Essential Services’ in the first week of April and commenced its free food distribution drive supporting families with less to no means of food, groceries and essential items.
The first set of free food bags were sent to a Marae in Papakura on April 6, and the group has been conducting such food distribution drills ever since in different parts of Auckland, Northland and in association with different religious, community associations and sporting clubs across North Island.
“The food boxes/bags we distributed included fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, egg crates, milk, snack items, canned items, tea, coffee etc.,” Daljeet Singh from NZ Sikh Games told The Indian Weekender.
The food distribution was done in North Shore, Tauranga, Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Weymouth, and most recently in Favona in Mangere on Wednesday, May 13.
“Our team picked up the groceries from different places; some bought, some contributed in both cash and kind by other organisations and our volunteers arranged them in separate bags, making sure no one gets less or more.
“Our team was equipped with the PPEs, followed social distancing protocol every time they were out and about distributing the food bags, and we have done the distribution at someplace multiple time.
We also had a dedicated them to distribute food bags to elderly individuals, single parents, people with no means of travel or people who were either sick or in isolation- and delivered it to their houses keeping the normal distancing. We made sure no one was missed,” Daljeet Singh said.
Mr Singh added that he considers himself and his team fortunate to be able to help people who were vulnerable, especially families, elderlies and temporary migrant workers who either lost their jobs and had no means to survive during the lockdown.
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