“Love all, feed all”: After nearly 20 years serving meals on the Downtown Eastside, Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen is opening a permanent location

Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen (GNFK), is a charitable non-profit organization that serves hot, freshly-made meals every weekend on the Downtown Eastside (DTES). GNFK is one of at least 82 groups offering free or low cost food programs in Vancouver, with 18 of those programs clustered in the Downtown Eastside. 

Residents of the Downtown Eastside face a constellation of intersecting challenges, including  low incomes. Historically, around 50% of DTES residents fall below the official poverty line, compared to about 22% city-wide, according to City of Vancouver and Statistics Canada data from the mid 2010s. 

Food insecurity, a lack of adequate or secure access to food driven by financial constraints, was at the highest estimated level in 2023 ever since monitoring began in the early 2000s, according to the research group PROOF.

Charitable food services like food banks and free meal programs have not been found to improve food security in the long term, according to PROOF. However, they do serve to fill an immediate need for people who don’t have reliable financial access to food — particularly when the food being offered is nutritious and tastes good. 

Winston, a man who’d been staying at a shelter on Hastings for the past six months, described the impact of not having enough food as “not being able to think straight, not having the energy to physically function throughout your day, that's really what hits me the most,” he said.

When you’re hungry, “that's all you're thinking of, right,” Winston (a pseudonym, as he asked not be named) said. “Like where can I go get myself a free meal, or just something to get in myself, so I don't have to be hungry, and tired all day,” he said.

Named after the founder and first guru of Sikhism, GNFK’s slogan is “love all, feed all,” and their volunteer-run Langar Seva program has been serving food on the DTES since 2006. Guided by Sikh principles and practices, the group welcomes everyone to eat, drink, and participate in their program.