Alameda : The Sewa Diwali Food Drive Donates 6500 lbs of food locally

The Sewa Diwali Food Drive is an annual food drive organized by a collection of organizations and individuals rooted in Indic values from all over the US. The food drive happens around the Hindu festival of Diwali with more than 200+ partner organizations and 2000+ volunteers. This year nationally we were able to collect more than 500000 lbs of food and about 23000lbs of food across various bay Area Counties. This was then delivered by our volunteers to our neighbors in need. In its Sixth year now, Sewa Diwali continues to bring people closer together through the selfless act of giving (Sewa).

The need for food in our communities is magnified this year due to the persistent inflation and general high cost of living in the Bay Area. The food drive of this magnitude would not have been possible without the efforts of Hundreds of volunteers across the region.

The heartening part of this was the whole hearted participation and support of our young volunteers like Gautham Nair, Atharv Mishra, Dhara Parekh, Gayathri Nair, Madhupriya Nimmala etc. They took the initiative to go to almost all the houses in their area to collect donations. They collected around more than 1000 pounds of food as part of the food drive.

The Alameda County team had collected 6500+ lbs of food locally that was distributed to various organizations like the Alameda County Food Bank, Tri-City Volunteers Fremont, Milpitas Food Pantry, Burmese Refugee community in Oakland, and to many families in need directly through our local schools of Fremont Unified School District & Half Moon Bay High School.

In the Indic traditions, Sewa plays a crucial role in an individual’s life and shone through in the hundreds of volunteers of all ages who came together to collect food for and distribute it to those in their communities in need. We would like to acknowledge gratefully the many volunteers young ones and adults whose selfless work made this event the success that it is.

This event would not have been such a great success with out the hard work and commitment of our local partner organizations like the Nair Service Society Of California, VT Seva, Festival Of Globe (FOG) & Fremont Hindu Temple, Association OF Indo Americans, University Of Silicon Andhra, The Odisha Society Of The Americas California Chapter, Jain Center Northern California, Sri Siddhi Vinayaka Cultural Center Temple Fremont, Samskrita Bharati USA & Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh USA .

The Sewa Diwali Closing ceremony that was attended by various Bay Area community and city leaders was held on Dec 10th at Milipitas FalconX hall.

With Sewa Diwali we hope to spread the light of care and kindness to those in need in our community this year and in years to come.