IN keeping with their historical agriculture roots in the Punjab region of India and their custom of donating of food, the Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) is providing 100,000 free sugarcane plates for the Vaisakhi Parade and Festival to be held in Surrey on April 21.

These plates will be used by neighbourhood food stalls to serve the delicious dishes that attendees have come to expect.

Vaisakhi marks the birth of the Khalsa way of living and is celebrated globally. The Surrey event is expected to attract half a million people this year and may be the largest celebration of its kind in North America.

“When we learned that styrofoam does not degrade for hundreds and hundreds of years and takes

styrofoam is relatively inexpensive, our credit union was prepared to pay more for a compostable product that will encourage other organizations to follow our example,” said Dalbir Singh Mehta,  CEO of KCU.

KCU decided to purchase and distribute plates made of sugarcane, rather than paper, since cane is fully compostable, normally within 60 days, and is derived from a renewable, sustainable and fast growing plant source without any trees having to be cut.

“When we heard about the Foam Free Vaisakhi campaign sponsored by the City of Surrey and Copytek Print Centres we were delighted to lend our support to make Vaisakhi in Surrey an even greener celebration,” said Mehta.