Edible Vancouver Island July/August 2024

"When people reach out and share with us what their needs are, the only question we ask is, "What’s your address and phone number?'" – Harjas Singh Popli

Photo courtesy of Fateh Care Charity

food and deliver it to their home. “When people reach out and share with us what their needs are, the only question we ask is, 'What’s your address and phone number?' They don’t have to worry about a registration process or proving they need help; they know they will simply receive the help they need. That’s the beauty of it,” says Harjas. The story doesn’t end there. When I ask Harjas where he gets the food from and how he pays for it, he simply answers, “we buy what we can’t get from other places.” Since starting the charity, Fateh Care has partnered with non-profit organizations like the Mustard Seed Food Bank and other charities, but much of the food and supplies he delivers to people comes from their personal income. “Our parents taught us to give ten percent of our income back to the community. Today we give much more than ten percent, and for us, it’s a privilege to give,” Harjas adds. When I ask how they handle the pressure to pay for all of their own monthly expenses and for all of these requests they get from people every day, Navneet simply says, “It’s never a pressure; it’s the opposite of pressure. If we are not giving, we would feel like we aren’t doing our part to help our community.” THEIR MOTTO: WIN HEARTS BY CARING Fateh means “victory,” and this mobile food bank is not only victoriously caring for people all over greater Victoria, but inspiring others to do the same. I asked Harjas if he could share any stories–and he jumped up, opened his laptop and said, "This message I just received is beautiful!” He went on to share with

Photo courtesy of Fateh Care Charity

THE FATEH CARE CHARITY STORY The Fateh Care story begins in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, which happened to be the exact same time Harjas and his family landed in Canada from India. They arrived in a city where they knew no one. They were new immigrants full of hope and promise– who found themselves alone, isolated and, after a few months, hungry. “My wife’s a university professor, and I am a human resources specialist, and we both planned on starting work and making a life in Canada, but we arrived the week that the borders closed,” says Harjas. Their savings were quickly diminished as the whole family contracted COVID and they found themselves housebound and in need of basic things like food and household items. When they reached out for help, they discovered there were no organizations or charities that offered a “mobile food bank” that could drop off items, as they were all home sick and isolated. This experience inspired Harjas and Navneet to start the mobile food bank, Fateh Care. The vision was to create a charity that would respond to anyone who needed

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