As the COVID-19
pandemic shuttered colleges in early March, student organizations like the Sikh
Student Association (SSA) at Fresno State had to move their meetings to a
virtual format.
When the new board members were elected,
they saw an opportunity to give back to their community in a time of need. Over
several Zoom meetings, board members, came up with the idea of hosting a food
drive for families in need.
In mid-May, Fresno
State SSA created a GoFundMe page to purchase food and supplies, raising
around $3,180. Still, the page didn’t gain as much traction as they hoped.The
goal was to raise around $20,000, so they contacted several local punjabi-owned
businesses. So they went around to
Punjabi-owned businesses, mostly trucking companies, and collected around an
extra $28,000.
They [purchased] mainly canned food, flour, pasta
and granola bars because those are things that are necessities that people can
use on a daily basis, but would also keep them for a week. The main target
group of the drive was groups of four to five-member families, Based on that, the club members chose
ingredients that families could use for cooking supplies such as macaroni, rice
and flour.
In total, the club
handed out 1,059 boxes to families in Fresno County. Each box contained around
$30 of dry goods that could last up to a week.
A pamphlet was also stashed inside
each box as well, which talks about the message of Sikhism as well as some
quick facts.
“A lot of people don’t know about our
religion, and a lot of people don’t know what the basis and the values are of
being Sikh,” President Sandeep Sandhu said.
“.This way people get a better understanding of our religion.”.
The basic message of Sikhism is the
opposite of terrorism — one creator and one human race, all equal each with the
creator’s light within.
“Our
religion believes in giving back to families and people, and we’ll continue to
do that moving forward,” Sandhu said.
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