Inside the World’s
Largest Free Kitchen
.......Everyone eats the same food being dished out by the volunteers: dal, vegetables, and a thick South Asian rice pudding called kheer. It is lunchtime at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and of the nearly 100,000 people who eat here on an average day, not a single one of them will pay for the food they consume. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?
A meal of this scale is made possible by a cadre of volunteers and an astonishing amount of raw materials: 12,000 kilos of flour, 1,500 kilos of rice, 13,000 kilos of lentils, and up to 2,000 kilos of vegetables. While much of the work is done by hand, a mechanized oven and conveyor belt turn out 200,000 rotis on a daily basis. The langar, as it’s called, never closes—and even late at night, pilgrims will stop by for a meal.
Nearly 500 years ago, a Sikh guru living in the Indian subcontinent introduced a revolutionary idea when it comes to the consumption of food. The idea was simple enough: a place should exist where everyone, regardless of religion or social status, could sit on the ground together as equals and eat the same food. The philosophy behind this free meal was a radical departure from the prevailing norms, where caste hierarchies decided what you ate and with whom you ate it.........
Tradition tells that Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru, disappeared at the age of 30 after having a vision. Three days later, he reappeared, saying only that “there is no Hindu, and there is no Musalman [Muslim].” With these words, and the belief attached to them that all are equal before God, the Sikh faith was born. At the core of Sikh teachings about equality and oneness is the langar, a free community kitchen where everyone is welcome regardless of social or religious distinctions. The langar at the Golden Temple is a living example of the Sikh faith’s rejection of the notion of caste.
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