A key aspect of Surrey’s Vaisakhi Parade, or nagar kirtan, is the tradition of giving away food to parade-goers in celebrate of the harvest.
This year’s annual Khalsa Day event is set for Saturday, April 20, on streets of Newton.
“The food we see, at this point it’s really a combination of everything, all kinds,” explained parade spokesperson Moninder Singh, president of Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar (Sikh temple), where the parade starts at 9:30 a.m. (12885 85 Ave.).
“We see people from various communities put up tents, and it’s all vegetarian food, that’s important,” he added. “You see everything from Punjabi food, like roti and dhals and curry dishes, and then you see things like Subway sandwiches and people giving out pizza and popcorn for kids, cotton candy stands, a wide variety of things.”
Fundamentally, Vaisakhi is an opportunity to bring people together to have conversations, Singh said.
“The food is supposed to be the ‘lungar seva,’ serving those who are less fortunate, that’s one part of it,” Singh explained. “The other is actually having collective community conversations around the food, you know, like social justice issues or political issues or economic issues, anything that people want to talk about. It’s a way for them to sit and talk with one another across, you know, race, ethnicity, sexuality and all those kind of things that we see in our community.”
That’s why the food distribution is done on such a huge level at Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade, he added.
“Anyone who goes to a tent to get food, they usually start engaging in a conversation with the person that’s giving away the food, thanking them and asking them their name,” Singh said. “And then sometimes you have relationships that build just on one interaction and they last a lifetime.”
During the parade, local businesses bring food to serve the masses including operators of Surrey-based Nanak Foods, who have a 23-year history of handing out food to parade-goers.
“We try and serve something that’s not on the market yet, something we’re launching, or recently launched. We always do one savoury and one sweet, usually,” explained Raj Arneja, Nanak’s director of community engagement and philanthropy.
“Last year we had veggie burgers and milk cake,” added company CEO Vineet Taneja. “This year, we recently launched samosas so we’re doing those, cocktail samosas, and we know those will be popular. We also have gajrela (carrot fudge made with Indian red carrots and khoa, or concentrated milk solids, best served warm).”
On the parade route, Nanak Foods sets up in a huge tent shared with other food-focused businesses in the parking lot of a Fruiticana store.
“The lineup that starts outside the tent, the amount of people squeezing in trying to get food, it’s incredible, unbelievable, and it lasts for six or seven hours like that,” Raj said.
“For us it’s another way of thanking our customers for being loyal to us,” added Gurpreet, Raj’s husband. “We serve the smaller portions and it’s all very popular, and people keep coming back for more food, and it’s a pleasure to see that.”
All of Nanak’s food servers at Vaisakhi volunteer their time as ‘sevadars,’ including employees, friends and family members, Taneja noted.
In 2023, Nanak celebrated 25 years of business in Surrey. For distribution to consumers in 15 countries, the growing company makes vegetarian foods at plants in Newton, Campbell Heights and Bellingham. Currently under construction is a massive new 300,000-square-foot factory in Campbell Heights, a facility to replace both existing Surrey plants.
“Our growth has been very aggressive and hence, we’ve had to grow as we found space in the existing facility or adjoining properties,” Gurpreet explained. “We were transferring products from one area to the next, and that made it very labour-intensive and challenging to expand. So finally we were lucky enough to get a land base large enough to accommodate a 300,000-square-foot facility to integrate all the segregated facilities under one roof, achieve more efficiency, higher capacity.
“And we’re incorporating a daycare, an on-site daycare for our staff,” he said of the new factory. “This facility (in Newton) will be phased out of our production, but I’m sure there will be a successor who will be manufacturing food here, because it’s designed for it. We have a handshake deal already for one space here, and the other is available right now.”
Raj Arneja calls Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade “such a happy time, a good celebration.
“I love seeing the people and all the vibrant colours, you know. All these women are dressed up and it’s just a really good outing. We like to take a little walk down just before the bigger crowds and have a cup of tea and try different foods as well. So you’re trying different foods, and it’s people doing selfless service, the seva. Groups of families will get together and just start cooking right on the street. You don’t really see that in any other cultures and that’s a cool thing. That’s a core of religion, Sikhism.”