Boise Mayor Gives Sikh Community a Seat at the Table

Mayor McLean (center left) poses with Mehar Singh (center right) and other members of the Sikh community at Bombay Grill.

One of the pillars of the Sikh faith is “vand chhakna” or sharing with others — which includes feeding people for free.

“In the temples anyone can come eat. Free food is provided all the time,” said Robin Singh, a Sikh who grew up in Boise. Robin’s father, Mehar Singh, owns Bombay Grill on 10th Street.

The roughly 500 Sikhs in the City of Trees don’t have a local temple, but they still find ways to feed their community. Each month, the Singhs deliver 100-150 free meals to the River of Life Men’s Shelter as part of their Share Meals With Others project. They dish up butter chicken and chicken tikka masala to everyone who’s hungry.

On Nov. 22, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean recognized this and many other Sikh contributions to Boise. Speaking to a gathering of Sikhs at Bombay Grill, she officially proclaimed November Sikh Awareness & Appreciation Month in Boise. At least 17 states including Oregon, Washington, and Utah have made similar dedications, according to The Sikh Coalition.

After Mayor McLean spoke, Bombay Grill served attendees a free dinner.

“Not only should we be recognizing your faith and community in November but of course we should do it throughout the year, because you’re incredibly important to the cultural and social fabric and faith fabric of our city,” McLean said.

Among the listeners were Gurtej Sandhu, a Boise-based Sikh inventor holding 1,382 patents; Californian Simran Kaur, Tracy Unified School District Board president and deputy district attorney of the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office; and her father Mehar Singh.

“It makes me incredibly proud of Boise because they’ve done so much for us, and it means a lot because we’ve been here for 20 years. [We are] being recognized and [they are] making sure our voices are heard and everyone knows who we are,” Mehar Singh said through a translator.

The proclamation is a step forward in the Sikh community’s effort to build a Boise temple and feed Boiseans in need. It now hangs at Bombay Grill (bombayboise.com) where McLean’s teenage son, Aiden, is a regular.

“The butter chicken here with the rice dish they have is incredible,” he said.

This story was originally published by Boise Weekly. Read the original here.