During different levels of lockdown, five weeks of Alert Level 4, two weeks of Alert Level 3 and in currently Alert Level 2- Ekta New Zealand has stepped up several notches in coming forward and helping the vulnerable and needy with pre-cooked and cooked food, groceries boxes and essentials.
Ekta New Zealand’s Guru Nanak Free Kitchen also completed one year of its service to the community earlier last week.
When the first lockdown was announced, as reported repeatedly on The Indian Weekender, a lot of the migrant and local communities faced with various kinds of hardships including job losses, no work, limited restrictions, no recreational activities and people in thousands out of basic essential and groceries to survive through the lockdown.
Several organisations stepped up in different parts of the country, delivering and distributing food bags to help those in need steer through the tough times. Ekta NZ’s volunteers in Wellington worked tirelessly to arrange food bags and collaborate with different organisations such as Downtown City Mission, the Soup Kitchen, the Night Shelter, City Mission to help the needy coming to those organisations.
“Over a ton of rice and over few hundred kilos of vegetables and groceries were distributed,” Abhishek Sharma from Ekta NZ told The Indian Weekender.
Ekta NZ worked along with St Peter’s Church of Willis Street and the Brahma Kumaris of Lower Hutt and provided meals and Indian grocery items to Indians students/migrant workers and Indian visitors stuck in Wellington daily at the two sites.
“During lockdown 4 and 3, groceries and vegetables were supplied weekly to Downtown City Mission, the Soup Kitchen, the Night Shelter and City Mission where scores of homeless and people/families out of money to buy food for themselves come and feed themselves,” Mr Sharma said.
Mr Sharma said that Ekta NZ received funding from Wellington City Council, and Office of Ethnic Communities to cover the cost of the meals and groceries. Since the food distribution was prolonged due to more demand from students and migrants in need, the rest of the expenses was covered by Ekta NZ’s members and supporters.
“We had 12-15 volunteers, mostly students and migrants and Ekta members who volunteered to arrange, pack, distribute and donate food bags to the needy during different levels of lockdown.
Ekta NZ has been helping and providing free services to students, migrants and the vulnerable for a number of years and under the Guru Nanak Free Kitchen initiative, the group has served over 400 meals to Wellington City in the last 12 months.
“The service has grown from providing prepacked prepared meals to providing blankets, warm clothing, footwear, and household needs as the need arises. In addition to meeting the needs of individuals, Ekta is now also contributing to the other main charities of the city,” Sunita Musa from Ekta NZ said.
Completing Guru Nanak Free Kitchen initiative’s first-year last week, Ekta NZ said they have received food items from various faith organisations, the highlight of which, a Sikh family providing the main meal, a Muslim family providing the dessert and the food was distributed by members of the Christian community- a unique hard work of different faith groups to help the needy in the name of humanity.
“Different faiths groups have come forward providing food items that have helped feed the vulnerable and needy in Wellington, a true picture of the diversity of our country,” Mr Abhishek Sharma from Ekta NZ said.
Speaking about Guru Nanak Free Kitchen Wellington, Mr Sharma said the service was started after 2019’s March 15 Christchurch incident with the intention to meet the gap in the city’s food banks that exists during the weekends.
“To do the food distribution service visibly so that the larger New Zealand community could also witness that the migrant communities were equally concerned with the city’s issues and were contributing to its solutions albeit in a small way.
“In doing so we also wanted to create ‘Ekta (unity)’ by sharing the platform with the different faith and ethnic groups,” Mr Sharma added.
Ekta NZ’s plan for year 2 is not only to continue and build on year one but also to grow our range of activities to meet the needs of the vulnerable in Wellington.