IT'S WALL-TO-WALL FOOD AS DONATIONS POUR IN

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

It's wall-to-wall food as donations pour in

Food donations were delivered by the van-load as Leicester's Sikh community rallied together for a charity food drive.

More than 10,000 items, including canned goods, rice and pasta were collected on Saturday at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, in East Park Road, to coincide with a special day in the religion's calendar.

Vaisakhi celebrates Khalsa, the formation of the Sikh community in 1699. It is marked the world over by Sikh worshippers and is traditionally a time to help others.

Thousands of people took along bags of food to the charity event, as well as ordering items online and having them delivered to the venue by supermarket vans.

It was estimated that the total weight of the donations was about seven tons.

Amandeep Rai, of the Leicestershire Sikh Alliance, which organised the event, said: "It's been a constant stream of food, it's been amazing. We've had vans turning up with bags full of food – we've got at least 10,000 items, if not a lot more.

"We've had volunteers constantly sorting the food into piles, and the piles have just continued to grow."

Amandeep said one of the central beliefs of Khalsa was the principal of Seva, which means selfless service, and that was why the food drive had been organised.

The alliance will donate the collected food to a number of charities including FareShare Leicester, the British Red Cross and the Dawn Centre, a homeless shelter in Conduit Street, Leicester city centre.

Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth went along to show his support for the drive.

He said: "It's absolutely amazing – there's just wall-to-wall food. Tins of beans, rice, vegetables, pasta – anything you can think of, I'm so impressed.

"It's a tribute to the Leicester Sikh community which has really outdone itself."