Langar: Volunteering to Feed the World
By Pankhuri Kumar
It’s relatively quiet inside the gurdwara (Sikh temple) this Tuesday morning, as residents of Richmond Hill go about their daily life. The contrast is stark: the main hall of the Sikh temple, bustling with people on Sundays, is almost empty; the shoe rack, usually overflowing to the floor, has vacant spaces today, and the prominent store that is the center of activity on Sunday lies silent. But the basement of the Sikh Cultural Society Gurdwara remains unaffected by the day of the week. Here, every day is yet another day of langar.
Unknown to many New Yorkers, most gurdwaras in NYC offer free vegetarian meals, known as langar, to anyone who walks through their doors regardless of their faith, gender, caste, ethnicity or financial status.
At the Sikh Cultural Society Gurdwara, the service starts at 4 a.m. and continues till 10 p.m. every day, or whenever the last person needing food turns up.
“We start early because many working people and students come, and they pack lunch also if [it is] ready,” said Sukhninder Singh, one of the two managers employed by the Society. The managers alternate shifts, and Singh arrived at 2 a.m. today to prepare breakfast. The langar is a community kitchen run through seva, volunteering, and the managers oversee and coordinate the operations.
“I decide the menu daily,” Singh explained as he single-handedly carries a bucket of daal to the serving counter. “Nine sacks of wheat, twenty liters of milk every day, and three times [the amount] on Sundays” is consumed through langar.
The gurdwara spends almost $5,000 every week on groceries, according to Kuldip Singh Dhillon, the President of the Society.
But on special occasions like weddings or birthdays, the menu is chosen by families that decide to sponsor a meal. The raw material for the sponsored menu is also donated by the family.
The kitchen is filled with multiple groups of people, all working on different tasks. On any given day, 15–20 sevaks (volunteers) can be found working in the kitchen. Chandrani Kaur, who is cutting onions for today’s lunch, has been doing seva for over six years now, and is in the kitchen from 7am to 2pm everyday to prepare lunch.
“I cut vegetables, wash vessels, everything. Work isn’t fixed here, everyday Babaji tells us [what] to do,” she said, referring to Sukhninder Singh.
On Sundays, there’s a rise not only in the number of people eating at the langar, but also volunteers, and the regular sevaks take lead in getting work done after Sukhninder assigns tasks.
Seva is an integral part of Sikhism, and it counts towards good karma. “One must do as much seva as they can,” says Minder Kaur as she kneads dough. Around her, a group of ladies stand and roll balls of dough with a rolling pin, making rotis.
One of the older women tells me that langar started when their spiritual leader, Guru Nanak, was handed twenty rupees by his father, and asked to work and earn for himself. At the end of the day, when Guru Nanak was asked about his profits, he replied, “I made the best deal, I fed the hungry.”
Ever since, langar has been part of being a Sikh.
The sanctity of preparing langar is maintained at every step of the process. Sevaks wash hands every time they change tasks, and they step outside the kitchen even if they have to take a sip of water.
One of the sevaks starts singing, and everyone joins in. The chant, ‘Sat Naam Waheguru,’ is a way to remember their leader and his good deeds. Between chants, Chandrani mentions that sevaks are not supposed to talk during their work, rather they chant or remain silent. The lady next to her jokes that one interview during seva won’t harm, and the entire group giggles.
“More men come for dinner, after working. The lunch [is] managed by ladies mainly,” Singh said. Most of the ladies are over the age of 50. So who manages lunch at home? “We have sons, daughters-in-law, a husband, one of them manages. They know I will come here every day,” said Surinder Kaur, another sevak. As older women who do not have much to do at home, spending a few hours serving the community with others is a routine most of them look forward to.
The daily menu is simple, daal (lentil soup), roti (flat wheat bread), a vegetable dish, plain rice and kheer, a dessert prepared by slowly cooking rice or vermicelli in milk.
During festivals, the dishes are richer, and the menu also includes starters and lassi, a yogurt-based drink. In July, the langar’s menu becomes kid-friendly because the Gurdwara holds summer camps for children, and sandwiches, pizzas or burgers are often prepared.
But cooking is not the only thing the sevaks do. On Sundays, when the crowds are larger, sevaks distribute plates to people who sit on the floor in long rows. They walk along the rows, carrying buckets of food and serving each person. Once people are done eating, the utensils are dropped off at a designated place where volunteers gather them, discard leftovers and wash the utensils.
“No one knows this is a 24 hour langar, we do not turn away anyone who comes,” said Singh, “whatever is available in the kitchen, we will give to them. If nothing is available, we will cook.”
The Sikh community eats at the langar regularly, and other South Asian communities also know about it and come often. However, Singh says that other ethnic communities within Richmond Hill do know about the langar, once in a while, Hispanic and African Americans living in the vicinity have also come in to eat at the langar. “We also welcome sevaks from any community,” Singh said.
As Minder puts it, “We make food, it feeds people and that’s good work.”
The next time you want to eat out, consider visiting a langar. You may go in expecting to fill one empty stomach, and come out having helped fill so many more.
