Creating meals for homeless helps family live their faith

Cathy Janek for Chronicle Media

Sukhvinder Singh and his wife, Pradeep Kaur, work the serving line recently at Hesed House, the Aurora homeless shelter. The family creates around 200 vegetarian meals for Hesed clients each time they work. (Hesed House photo)

When moving to a new community, a prime consideration for a family is often the location and quality of schools.

But for Sukhvinder Singh, his wife, Pradeep Kaur, and daughters Divgot age 7, and Jasleen, age 8, the focus of last year’s move from Atlanta was finding a new home in close proximity to a homeless shelter.

The family had been avid volunteers at the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, preparing hundreds of meals for 500 to 600 individuals each time over the 10 years the family resided in Atlanta.

They sought to continue that service in Aurora, helping at Hesed House, the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois.

Now only 20 minutes from Hesed House, in one short year the family will have prepared and served 55 vegetarian meals for about 200 people during each volunteer stint.

The family’s Sikh religion is the guiding principle behind their commitment to give back to others. Both Sukhvinder and Pradeep wear turbans as do other Sikhs.

“We could have enlisted other volunteers to serve who look more a part of the community, but we do this so that we encourage compassion for others,” said Kaur.

“There are three basic tenets to our religion,” she said, “Always be in a constant state of prayer or thankfulness, earn your living by honest means, and share your food. When you feed the homeless and they have a full stomach, they will be more inclined to do something nice for others.”

The family does not eat meat, eggs, or fish and follows that Sikh tradition by cooking completely vegetarian meals for the clients of Hesed House—just like the family did for the homeless in Atlanta.

At first, Kaur said, the all-vegetarian meals made with Indian spices raised a bit of skepticism. However, quickly, people found that they really liked the food, she added.

Kaur said dinner meals vary between cooked beans, rice, mixed vegetables, potatoes, rolls, and salad—much of which are purchased by the family at their own expense.

Occasionally, other families will pitch in to help, Kaur added.

“We cut fresh salad ourselves that includes 12 to 15 different fresh vegetables. It is visually so nice to see—everything is so fresh,” she said.

The family also serves breakfasts consisting of oatmeal and pancakes.

Kaur said the couple’s two daughters often come along to help out pass out food and the family tries to schedule their volunteering when the daughters can also attend.

“They hand out the bananas, cookies, salad, and water,” she said.

Bruce Bachmeier, Director of Volunteers with Hesed House is grateful for the help.

“This family embodies the essence of Hesed,” he said. “We are grateful that they fill vacancies wherever needed for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but they also serve with such humility and joy, and I think that spirit spreads to everyone they meet. We are blessed to add them to our volunteer family here, where for nearly 35 years our volunteers and groups have lived Hesed by acting on their steadfast and enduring love of neighbor.”

Moving from India, the couple said homelessness and food insecurity mostly occurs in India when an individual has no family due to the country’s social structure—still they were surprised to learn of the number of homeless individuals here in the United States.

The family first became involved at the shelter preparing meals for Atlanta’s homeless on Wednesdays—when most of the other volunteer groups, mostly comprised of churches had Bible study.

However, due to the traffic in Atlanta it often took the family 60 to 90 minutes to travel to the shelter—something they didn’t want to repeat here in Illinois.

Deciding between a house in St. Charles and another in Aurora—the family ultimately chose the Aurora home after calculating the travel time to Hesed House.

–Creating meals for homeless helps family live their faith–