On February 23, 2009, saints celebrated Guru Puja Divas which marks the birthday of His Holiness Baba Hardev Singh Ji. His compassion for mankind is so immense that his followers wanted to celebrate his birthday by engaging in generous acts to benefit humanity such as a food drive.

Once the word came from the World Headquarters, the President,  Director In-charge  Social Services, Branch Parmukhs and all the members of the Sadh Sangat in their respective centers, quickly coordinated their combined efforts for a highly successful food drive. This was the first time that a food drive was undertaken on a National basis, and the participating centers were Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Mission, Windsor, Kamloops, and Victoria. It was decided that the food would be donated to The Salvation Army which is known to work for the welfare of needy people in Canada.

The Saints from all the branches embraced the call to help those in need by donating hundreds of boxes and bags of food. Vancouver organized a drive which included a goal of collecting at least 55 bags of food to commemorate the 55^th year of the pure joy of the blessings of the physical presence of His Holiness. They surpassed their goal with an impressive tally of 80 bags of food donated by the committed saints. In Mission BC, the saints not only donated food but also clothing to the Salvation Army. In Montreal, 35 large boxes full of non perishable foods were donated, and Captain Wayne Greenham from the Salvation Army himself came to receive the donation and profoundly thanked the Mission for the gift. Kamloops and Edmonton also saw the generosity of its saints in the impressive amount of donations made.  In Toronto, almost 8000 pounds of food was donated during this drive, which was the largest food drive since the Toronto congregation began donating. Up until the last days of the food drive, numerous saints continued to bring donations. The Salvation Army representatives arrived on February 22nd to receive the large donation. They were impressed by the large quantity of food being contributed. As such, they had to return twice to bring larger vehicles to transport the food. The initial estimate of food quantity exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The saints from the different branches, very happily donated non perishable food items such as cereals, baby food, cans of soup, lentils, rice and sugar. The saints were eager to express their gratitude to their Satguru and seek his blessings. Their donations expressed their love for Baba Ji and the importance of his teachings and guidance in their lives. It is with the grace of Satguru Baba Ji that the saints are able to help those in need and express their gratitude for all the things they have been blessed with.  By reaching out a hand, saints hope to build strong relationship with local networks who have a similar views of serving mankind. This foundation of giving is a blessing by which saints live their daily lives and strive to become contributing hard working members of society.

The representatives from the Salvation Army in all of the participating cities expressed their immense gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all the saints for taking time out to help them make a difference in the lives of fellow human being.

Montreal, QC

Captain Wayne Greenham - I was very touch by the warm welcome that I received. It was as if we had known each other for years. This was my first contact with the organization and I was blessed beyond words. It was amazing how the group reacted and how excited they where to be involved in such an event.

One thing that I noticed was that everyone there was included from the youngest to the oldest (it was their thing and they took ownership something special to all). I am really looking forward to a continued relationship/partnership with the group. Mr. Arneja’s introduction made me fell so welcome. I was overwhelmed.

I had no idea what to expect in terms of donations but I (we) were more than happy with what we collected. We had a total of 32 large cases of non perishable food items, soups, cereals, cookies, etc. We have not yet completed the inventory but it was well worth the effort. I would once again like to thank the Sant Nirankari Mission for their generous donation.

Brampton, ON

Gordon Randell - A great success! Two separate trips were made to pick up food.  Over 9000 pound of food was donated.

Richmond, BC

Major Ken Ritson - A great success!  Approximately 700 pounds of food was collected.

Abbottsford, BC

Andy Kwak attended the Monday Night Mission Meeting and was able to share with the folk about The Salvation Army in Abbotsford.  Most of the donations consisted of used clothing with a small-moderate amount of food.  The folk were very friendly and treated them with great respect.

Edmonton, AB

David Dickinson - They were very friendly people.  They fed me lunch - yum!

We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this so there was some panic.

Someone either gave him the wrong number to call or he misunderstood the number.

We played some sort of telephone tag all week.

I finally got in touch with him on Thursday - by that time he had called the Food Bank so they sent a representative, too.

The food that was collected by me went to the Food Bank sort of because of our agreement with them.

We have a "contract" that says that we will not approach any entities asking for food and in return the Food Bank will supply us.  Since the Food Bank found out about the donation, they expected the food to go there.

Next year, perhaps the Food Bank can go to collect the food since they will receive it anyway.

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