“Lifting peoples’ spirits by showing them they have friends who are willing to help them will ultimately allow them to reach out of poverty.” Jas Singh
This is not the first time I’ve posted about Jas Singh. A simple man with big dreams and day by day he is making his dreams come true. His only goal in life is to feed the poor. Not only is he feeding the poor, he’s taking a whole community along for the ride. He has a database of 1100 volunteers who help him run the farm so he can produce the food needed to feed the less fortunate. His goal in 2014 was to produce 500,000 pounds of produce from 70 acres of land to donate to the local food banks. Jas sustains himself by growing and selling crops on the side for very little income. He has big shoes to fill but he doesn’t see this as his lone mission, he sees the bigger picture and he sees his goals achieved by a community. He does it with volunteers and the support of a large social media community whom answer his requests every time he calls out for help, whether it be sowing the fields, harvesting the crop or setting up an ice rink. We don’t often get cold enough weather for an outside rink in this town, but when the temperature drops Jas takes to Facebook to appeal for help to flood the fields, for donations of generators, lights, speakers and music, barbecues, hot-dogs, hot chocolate – you name it he gets it as his army of volunteers answer his call. The general community comes out as well and share his pledge on Facebook with as many as 58,000 views. The weatherman said last week that we would have a cold snap, so Jas answered the call and his rink was ready by the morning of December 31st. The sun was strong so the boys and I headed to the farm by 10:30 am to get as much skating in as possible before the ice started to break up under the heat of the sun. We skated until 1:30 in the afternoon and left as the ice was getting soft. I read later that a thousand people showed up that day all enjoying a day of skating with their families, eating hot-dogs and drinking hot chocolate. The skate was by donation as Jas is raising money so he can seed his land to grow the crop he plans to donate to local food banks. His mission is simple but an incredible up-hill battle as he faces daily challenges. His secret to facing these challenges is that he doesn’t face them alone – he has many supporters and for this he is humbled. For more about Jas – read his story here: