Sikh couple honoured for one million meals

A Sikh couple whose charity served more than a million meals last year have been honoured for turning a small community food project into a service helping thousands of people every week.

Inderjit Jugdy and Avtar Kaur, founders of Langar Aid in Coventry, have received the Good Citizen Award from Coventry City Council in recognition of their work supporting people facing hardship.

The charity began in 2016 serving meals outside the city's job centre. Ten years on, inspired by the Sikh tradition of langar, a free communal meal open to everyone, they now provides more than 20,000 meals a week.

Jugdy said neither he nor Kaur could have imagined how much the project would grow.

"When we started, we didn't think it would grow into such a massive project, but it really has surprised us and inspired us to carry on," he said.

Langar Aid is part of Khalsa Aid International, a humanitarian organisation that provides support to vulnerable people regardless of their faith, background or circumstances.

Kaur said bringing the langar tradition into the community was a natural extension of the values she and Jugdy were raised with.

"Every Sikh temple around the world has a langar where anyone can go in, regardless of their religion, age or background, and have a free meal," she said.

"So we follow that concept to help people in need."

What started with family and friends preparing meals at home has since expanded far beyond its original ambitions.

"At its heart, the motivation has always remained the same, to serve humanity with compassion, dignity and no discrimination, offering not just food but a sense of care and human connection to those who need it most," Kaur added.

Presenting the award, Coventry's Lord Mayor, Roger Bailey, said the pair have made a lasting difference to people's lives.

"For more than a decade they have devoted their time, energy and compassion to supporting people facing hardship, ensuring that thousands of residents have had access to food, support and a sense of belonging when they needed it most," he said.

Jugdy, who turns 70 in November, said it was difficult to know exactly how many meals have been served over the past decade.

But he said the charity had provided more than one million meals in the last year alone, a figure that underlined how far it had come since serving about 30 meals a week when it first began.

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.