Brighten Your Day

Sikh Community Offers Free Food To Workers Affected By Government Shutdown

January 18, 2019

The Sikh community in San Antonio is offering free meals for all government employees during the shutdown.

As part of the Sikh religion, one of their duties is to look out and protect the downtrodden.

"We are here to support those federal employees who are not getting their paycheck, and we really appreciate their services... and we believe our nation should appreciate and give gratitude to those men and women who are doing wonderful service for us, but are not getting paid so," said Balwinder Dhillon, President of the Sikh Center of San Antonio.

All of the food is made fresh by volunteers from the community.

"They come early in the morning, four o'clock, sometimes five o'clock to start preparing," Dhillon said.

And while no one in their community is directly affected by the shutdown, he said, "We don't worry about one community. We all belong to one race, which is the human race. We think we are all brothers and sisters and we need to support each other no matter who we are. We may have different color, different class or religion, or social and economic status, but at the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters."