Interfaith Coalition Mobilizes 11,000 Food Kits; LDS-Sikh Partnership Marks Decade-Plus Ru

Eleven thousand food kits, packed over two days at a Sikh temple in Dubai, mark the eleventh consecutive year of a service partnership that began with a single conversation in 2014.

That conversation took place at an interfaith conference, where President Robert Bateman, then leading the Abu Dhabi Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, met Surender Singh Kandhari, chairman of the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara in Dubai. The two men envisioned collaborative service work. Bateman’s death shortly after their meeting could have ended the initiative before it started. Kandhari chose instead to honor both the friendship and the shared mission, launching a joint project the following year involving members of both faiths.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2026/09/14/latter-day-saints-lds-sikhs-dubai-11-years-of-service/.

What began as a single effort has held. The most recent gathering took place in late August, when volunteers from both communities assembled the kits across two days at the Sikh temple. Each kit was packed into a durable, insulated lunch bag and filled with nonperishable items intended for workers living near the temple.

The recipients occupy a particularly precarious economic position. Many live and work in the UAE while regularly sending financial support to family members in their home countries, according to the Church’s Middle East Newsroom. That dual financial burden makes the material assistance more than symbolic.

Kandhari framed the commitment as something closer to personal identity than periodic charity. “If I can make one person smile each day, I have done my job,” he said.

Elder Roland J. Bäck, an Area Seventy for the Church, pointed to the relational dimension of the work. “We share love and friendship as we continue to grow together,” he said, expressing gratitude that Latter-day Saints have been able to participate alongside community members in serving others.

By contrast, volunteers from the Latter-day Saint congregations tended to emphasize what the recipients would feel, not only what they would receive. Glydel Daculug, from the Dubai 1st Ward, said she hoped recipients would understand their situation had been seen. “God knows what we are going through, and He will send people to help,” she said. Her ward colleague Arnell Ambayon echoed that focus on recognition alongside relief. “We pray for their health and well-being and hope they feel our love,” he added.

Mark Wallentine and Lori Wallentine, serving as senior service volunteers for the Church and helping coordinate the effort, described the project as an expression of faith in practice. For Mark Wallentine, the work illustrated a straightforward principle: “It is a blessing to work alongside others who share a desire to help people in need and strengthen the community around us.”

Lori Wallentine noted that living in the UAE had exposed them to people from widely varying backgrounds and circumstances. “Working on this project gave us an opportunity to learn more about those people and serve together to show our love for our neighbors in a practical way,” she said.

The Latter-day Saint tradition centers two foundational commandments: loving God and loving one’s neighbor. The Dubai initiative has become a sustained, cross-faith interpretation of the second, now running across more than a decade. Whether the partnership expands in scope or scale in the years ahead remains an open question, though eleven years of unbroken continuity suggests the answer leans one way.