500,000 Free Meals For San Diego
500,000 Meals | Together We Shall | Compassion is Infectious | Promise to a Daughter
"The opposite of fear is not courage. The opposite of fear is compassion." - Elizabeth Gilbert
Last week, my 6 year old overheard me talking to my brother about the impact on millions of families from the current crisis. When I hung up, I saw her sobbing. I got worried and asked what happened. She told me that she was sad about the people who might have to go hungry and wanted us to help. I teared up and promised I would.
I work extensively with emerging businesses and know first-hand the impact that main street is witnessing. While I have deferred most of my compensation across the board, I wanted to do more, like many others around us who are stepping-up. Having experienced unemployment/partial-employment myself over the last 2 years, I knew the stress numerous families are going through and how even a small token of support helps.
Food is one of our basic necessities. I am a Sikh and we have had a tradition of free community kitchen for all people, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, race, gender etc. for 500 yrs. Our community kitchens have mostly stayed open irrespective of wars, famine etc. However, the COVID-19 crisis is one rare occasion where our community kitchens (langar service) have shut down.
Therefore, I have chosen to contribute and raise funds for The San Diego Food Bank’s tremendous work for providing food to the sick, poor and the elderly, as my way of continuing the tradition of "community kitchen” (langar service) & keeping my promise to my daughter. We are all ONE, always, and especially so in these trying times and together we can help each other overcome the current crisis as well.
Here’s my commitment:
· I am starting a GoFundMe campaign with an individual contribution of $10K
· I will contribute an additional $2.50 for every $100 contribution. So, a $88K contribution will mean that I will donate an additional $2K for a total raise of $100K
· $1 = 5 meals. So, $100K = 500K meals!
Let's all come together and show that compassion is infectious. Please help with a donation and also spread the word.
Why The San Diego Food Bank?
· The Food Bank is a top-notch charity with a 97% rating on Charitynavigator
· It is able to convert 93 cents of every $1 donated.
· It typically serves 2.2M meals /mo but already seeing a ~35% spike in demand
· It has 500 partners in San Diego; it has set-up “no-touch” pick-ups, calls centers, programs for senior citizens and also working with the impacted school districts to help under-privileged kids who depend on the schools for some of their meals
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