Gurudwara offers land for a healthy community initiative

For a resident in the South Auckland, the free food service (langar) at the Takanini Gurudwara is no new news. Every week more than 3000 members of the community take the langar service at the Shri Kalgidhar Sahib Gurudwara at Takanini School Road.

In a collaborative initiative by Healthy Families Manukau, Manurewa-Papakura and Old School Teaching Gardens, the garden of the Gurudwara has started sowing new plantations on Friday, August 4 that will enable growing fresh vegetables and fruits for the community.

This community garden initiative will enable the temple to engage the volunteers and the local community in growing fresh garden fruits to be served at the gurudwara and given back to the larger community.

The much-anticipated event on Friday witnessed the plantation by Minister for Ethnic Communities Judith Collins, Minister of Defence Mark Mitchell, National List MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi and later Prime Minister Bill English also joined the event.

The temple will plant up to 400 fruit trees such as lemons, orange, guava, lime, nuts and vegetables that will be used by the community.

“The volunteers at the Gurudwara come from a farming background, but it will be good for them to do plantation in the local climate and soil conditions,” spokesperson for the Supreme Sikh Society New Zealand Daljit Singh said.

The grounds of the Takanini Gurudwara are already being used for community’s sports and cultural events and have walking tracks too, and this new initiative of self-growing garden fruits and vegetables will help the community.

The idea is to produce enough fruits and vegetables to be used by the gurudwara that serves thousands of community members thrice a day, 365 days a week. The produce grown can also be given to the homeless and the hungry, and there will be ample seeds left to be given to local community members to use in their backyards and gardens.

Alliance Community Initiative Trust chief executive Rachel Enosa, who runs Healthy Families Manukau, Manurewa-Papakura, says that the project will help develop sustainable food production.

The Takanini Gurudwara is the biggest Sikh Temple in New Zealand and is managed under Supreme Sikh Society of New Zealand. The parent body has also started a youth wing earlier in July to get the young Sikh-Kiwis get more involved with their religion and culture.