Sikh Community Makes 800 Hot Meals For Stranded Lorry Drivers In Kent

With a new strain of covid-19 spreading rapidly in the UK, many countries have enforced travel bans on both land and air travels from the country. France also closed its borders to the UK. This action left a lot of lorries stranded along the M20 motorway and beyond.
The drivers can do nothing but wait. To be applauded are the kind volunteers who are making sure that these drivers are well-fed.
Applaudable Volunteer Spirit
800 Hot meals ready for the truckers stranded in #Kent due to #OperationStack !
— Khalsa Aid (@Khalsa_Aid) December 22, 2020
Our thx to the #Kent Sikh community especially Guru Nanak Gurdwara Gravesend. for preparing meals on short notice #BordersClosed @Port_of_Dover pic.twitter.com/65WOnh1NG9
Khalsa Aid, a Sikh humanitarian relief charity, and the Gravesend Gurdwara worked together. They provided hundreds of hot meals to these drivers. Many volunteers cooperated with the Kent police and the county council to provide these meals on short notice. All meals were prepared at the Gurdwara Langar kitchen.
At 12 pm on December 22, team leaders received calls requiring them to get work. Alongside local authorities, they delivered 500 chickpea curries and 300 mushroom and pasta dishes to the drivers.
On Kent Online, it was reported that Jagdev Singh Virdee, the spokesman for Guru Nanak Darbar said:
“Khalsa Aid got in touch this morning at about 12 o’clock and by 2:30 pm, they came to collect the food. We made some phone calls to get volunteers together because we are already doing Langar, where we deliver to vulnerable people.”
Our teams are out there in the rain with the @kent_police , coastguard and highways agency distributing hot meals to truck drivers caught up in #OperationStack on M20 ! #BordersClosed @BorisJohnson pic.twitter.com/HwH0zs9s8d
— Khalsa Aid (@Khalsa_Aid) December 22, 2020
It was a nice move to ask for the help of volunteers since they had other relief activities on hand. With the aid of a police escort, it was easy getting to the drivers’ location.
Why They Did It
The Sikh community in #Gravesend has come together to make fresh hot food for lorry drivers stuck on the #M20.
— ITV News Meridian (@itvmeridian) December 22, 2020
More than 1,450 lorries remain stuck in #Kent unable to leave Britain due to a travel ban imposed by France. @RaviSinghKA @Khalsa_Aid
More: https://t.co/8HLfy6HUzC pic.twitter.com/b3Mn82oBF1
The president of the Gurdwara, Manpreet Singh Dhaliwal told ITV News:
“That’s just part of Sikhism. It is sharing your wealth with others. So we’ve got plenty of stock and we would love to share it with other people.”
There were more than 2,850 lorries waiting to leave the UK. On December 23, rail, sea, and air travels to France resumed after some negotiations.
Travelers though, are required to show proof of a negative covid-19 test conducted within the last 72 hours.
Also, only essential travel is permitted. This includes the stranded lorry drivers, British citizens with French residency, and French citizens.
A lateral flow test is to be performed on drivers. This provides a result in about 30 minutes. Should any driver test positive, a more accurate PCR test will be conducted to confirm results.
Eventually, the backlog of lorries was cleared within two to three days. This happened as promised by the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps. But, likely, some drivers did not make it home for Christmas.