United Sikhs Serves Hot Meals to Hurricane Ike Evacuees

Houston, Texas, USA – United Sikhs’ Humanitarian Aid team served over 900 hot meals to evacuees of Hurricane Ike in Houston, Texas over a period of five days from Oct 1st. FEMA and partner agencies contacted United Sikhs requesting that we serve hot meals and distribute emergency supplies to evacuees in Houston. The Sikh Center of the Gulf Coast in Houston, a gurdwara (Sikh place of worship), provided the kitchen facilities to cook hot meals for evacuees.

United Sikhs’ volunteers from Austin, Dallas, and Houston prepared meals which were then transported and served at local shelters. The hot meals were well received by the evacuees and relief partner agencies. Reginald Williams, a District Coordinator of State Representative Sylvester Turner, met the volunteers at the site and offered his sincere thanks to United Sikhs for providing food to evacuees.“We cooked rice, lentils, chick peas, kidney beans and prepared yogurt and salad at the Sikh Center of the Gulf Coast.

It was a great feeling to help others” said Rajwant Kaur, a volunteer from Houston.“Mary Bennet, a single mom, who had a tree in her driveway due to the hurricane which damaged the property and disrupted the power, gave a warm hug to volunteers across the serving table with tears in her eyes. Many more evacuees personally thanked volunteers for the meals, and it was great for local Sikh volunteers to give to other Texans.” said Gurjeet Kaur, United Sikhs relief coordinator.Lisa Cummins, the Florida Volunteer Coordinator for the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response, who supported the United Sikhs hot meals service, said, "It was such an honor for our team of Volunteer Ministers who were providing emotional and spiritual Assists, to work alongside your team of volunteers who graciously provided warm meals to those affected by Hurricane Ike. I know the people we served were very appreciative of this care. We look forward to working with your organization in the future." Harcharan Singh, Tarlok Singh and Gurjeet Kaur serving food Gurvinder Singh, Kawaljeet Kaur and Izhaarbir Singh serving food “We are working with agencies in the Galveston area to provide medical assistance to those evacuees who need essential medical treatment.

We plan to send a disaster medical assistance team of physicians, nurses and practitioners, and we request additional medical professionals to volunteer with us. Our experienced medical team has responded to some of the worst natural disasters including the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina” said United Sikhs Director Kuldip Singh.Suource: Gurvinder Singh, Director Sikh Aid United Sikhs