Sukhbir Singh on finding courage

The three moments of pure, determined courage that led 2018 Common Purpose alumni Sukhbir Singh to create a game-changing social movement.

"I didn’t have control over the fact that I couldn’t feed myself when I was younger. But now I have the strength and the knowledge to do that for others. Nothing will stand in the way of me doing that."

The first time Sukhbir Singh wore shoes was when he first arrived in the United Kingdom as a pre-teen. He had grown up in a town in India where food, clean water and electricity was a rarity, so it’s not hard to imagine the culture shock he encountered when he moved to Manchester.

Sukhbir got his first job at a “very hard, very dirty” cotton mill, an opportunity he didn’t take for granted as it provided him a stepping stone into the job industry. He then applied for a role at an IT company but missed out. He was determined to prove his worth so he decided to reapply, and again he missed out. But on his third application, he was successful. He worked there for 43 years, eventually becoming a manager and leading a team, before he retired in 2018.

It was at this point that he wondered: What’s next?

As it turns out, the answer became his greatest adventure yet, and two events catalysed this.

Sukhbir had travelled to India about six years prior to his retirement where he had voluntarily helped to feed the people from his hometown. In two days, he served 2000 meals. It cost him £200.

The experience confirmed what he had always hoped to do – to set up a charity that would feed the people of his city in India. But when Sukhbir returned to Manchester, he encountered barriers that were difficult to overcome given he was based so far away from India. Instead, he sought to bring the initiative to Manchester, the city that had given him a new lease on life all those years ago.

Coinciding with his retirement in 2018, Sukhbir attended Common Purpose’s Meridian Programme which ultimately gave him both the curiosity, determination and purpose he needed take his biggest leap: it was here that FeedMyCity officially launched.  

Since its 2018 inception, Sukhbir has grown the charity from a small social cause to a game-changing movement by applying a significant amount of learning from his experience on the Meridian Programme, which he credits as being the reason FeedMyCity is thriving in the way it is today. The charity, which is part of the Manchester Sikh Foundation founded by Sukhbir, now has more than 100 volunteers, 4 trustees and a management team. It has a warehouse filled with food, and in four and a half years, it has served 300,000 hot meals and delivered around 10,000 emergency drive-through parcels to people in need. The core of FeedMyCity's values is simple: To provide food to anybody in need, with no questions asked, and no judgements made. The service can be accessed via phone, online or email seven days a week.

The impact this charity has isn’t lost on Sukhbir, but that’s not to say he hasn’t encountered some extremely challenging moments which have tested his limits.

But at each of these hurdles, Sukhbir has searched within and found he possesses an asset crucial to the success of strong, purposeful and impactful leadership: Courage.

Here, he takes us through three moments that required his deepest, unrelenting courage – with the results speaking for themselves. 

Sukhbir finishes with one final piece of advice: "You have so much more power than you think. Sometimes progress can be very slow. But just listen, take what you need from others, and don’t take no for an answer."

That, as he's well and truly proved, is real courage.

If you know of anybody who is in need, phone FeedMyCity on 0300 365 3101 to access emergency food across Manchester, Salford, and Trafford.