Lebanon: A community gels around food assistance from WFP
Volunteers link up to prepare and deliver food to people in need
Some lost their loved ones, many lost their homes, and livelihoods following the blast that destroyed Beirut’s port in August, killing 190 people. Yet despite the rubble and destruction, people have found the determination to keep going and extend a helping hand, as individuals and collectively.
In the heart of Ashrafieh, one of the areas worst-hit by the blast, a catering business joined forces with a not-for-profit, set up earlier this year in response to COVID-19, to provide food for affected people. Karamel Catering and A+ Initiatives hit the ground running to help their local community.
A+ Initiatives is one of many organizations the World Food Programme (WFP) has supplied food parcels to over the past two months. After receiving the parcels through WFP’s implementing partner, CARE, the NGO took charge of cooking the food items in WFP’s parcels and delivering them to those in need.
Cyril, the founder, explained how difficult it is for the organization to move forward given the many obstacles as a country already beset by economic turmoil responded to the shock.
“I don’t know if there is a future for this organization,” he says, when I meet him. “I don’t know if there is a future for this country. I’ve said that I will stop the kitchen and food distribution many times, but then something happens. A donation comes in, and I find myself coming back.”
Cyril says WFP’s donation of food items are welcome. Indeed, many communal kitchens have benefitted from the organization’s distribution of 224 food boxes around Beirut. Thanks to donations from Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United States, this food was used to prepare around 3,000 hot meals a day in blast-affected areas. Each box contains enough to feed a family of five for one month.
“It’s hard to keep going when we keep getting knocked down time after time, but we must keep on trying,” Cyril says.
A+ Initiatives focuses on rehabilitating the local community and is run by volunteers — friends, family members, local residents.
Mario, for instance, was born and raised in Ashrafieh. He helps out in the kitchen in the morning and then proceeds to deliver the meals to families in the afternoon in his car.
“I come in every day to the kitchen, except for Sundays,” he says. “I volunteer from morning until the afternoon and then head to my job afterwards.”
He pays for his own petrol. “I consider it a donation to the families,” he says. “I’ve grown attached to these people and have created personal relationships with them. I even try to help them out with personal favours, not related to the food distribution.”
Mario and his friend Danny, also a resident of Ashrafieh, start their distribution journey at noon and end at around 3pm. They begin with people whose houses are closest to the kitchen and then branch out to reach those farther away.
The distribution partners make sure they are wearing face masks, keeping a distance, and, most importantly, serve people with a big smile only their eyes can show.
