We are the Emergency Response Team / Disaster Relief Team dedicated to all community members regardless of color, race, or religion and aim to help the needy around, No Questions Asked. Sikhs of Indy is a chapter organization of Sikhs of STL and is a Disaster Relief/ Emergency Response Team who responds mostly during emergencies. We are not restricted to only the Sikh community but we are open to
all religions, faiths ethnicities, and cultures. Sikhs of STL was founded in 2019 and other than disaster relief projects, we also do TURBAN DAY every year for Susan G. Jude to honor the cancer survivors with free turbans which is a priceless crown for a Sikh. On this day we tie free turbans and also put the local talent on the stage to perform their talent in front of everyone to support local talent and businesses. Before the pandemic set in, Sikhs across America would offer free meals (known as “Langar”) to anyone who showed up at their Gurdwaras, the Sikhs’ place of worship. However, as various states in the country went into lockdown, their temples, too, had to stop their services. “When the pandemic came along, the Sikh temples were shutting down, and that didn’t seem right. At times of dire need, you don’t close down, you open up.” Therefore, volunteers across Saint Louis decided to ramp up their volunteer efforts—all while maintaining social distancing and top-notch hygiene standards. “When we started, it was for two shelter homes. We started driving for hours downtown, bringing people food.” The initiative quickly grew in size as more volunteers joined hands. Though we did all the shopping, 85 families had come together to cook 1,500 meals a week. At the end of each week, the volunteers would drop by to leave the meals they’ve cooked, and then we would distribute the meals ourselves so volunteers won’t expose themselves. Among the principles of the Sikh faith is Seva — “basically, ‘selfless service'”. We brought Food and Supply drives to a lot of different counties of Saint Louis where pandemic hit very badly financially and emotionally. We brought fresh produce, non-perishables, milk, bread, hygiene supplies, hot meals, water, etc., and would serve almost 1000 families in every food drive. We also did an unhoused supply drive almost every weekend to provide them with hot meals, winter clothes, blankets, and emergency kits. Today this Disaster relief project is still up and running every Sunday, where anyone and everyone can still get food. The continuous support by the community has helped us to serve the families in need and we are still able to help a lot of them with the amazing support of the community. What Sikhs of STL have done till today is what a family would do for its family members. We feel not only Saint Louis but this whole world is just like our family who needs enough support and love from each one of us to make love win over the hate. If we all start helping at least one person in our daily life, we will end up healing this whole world in no matter of time.
