The Sikh New Year festival, Vaisakhi took place this week (April 14) and to celebrate colleagues and customers from Birmingham Metro Bank organised a food donation drive.

“As the UK’s best community bank, Metro Bank is integral to many local fundraising events”,

explains customer service representative, Simran Kaur.

“We reached out to our colleagues and customers to support our food drive to help celebrate one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar."

One of the fundamental traditions of Sikhism, is for the temple community kitchen (langar) to serve meals free of charge to anyone - irrespective of religion, gender, race or economic status. Thanks to everyone’s generosity our donations to the Aston & Nechells Foodbank will help feed many local families.

Aston & Nechells Foodbank provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are in crisis. They are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.

In the UK, more than 14 million people are living in poverty – including 4.5 million children. Between April 2019 and March 2020, the Trussell Trust provided a record 1.9 million food supplies to people in crisis, an 18% increase on the previous year and during the coronavirus pandemic food banks have seen need rise even further.