Turkey earthquake: Community kitchen near epicenter helps provide local dishes for homeless people | world News

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Charities said that the two powerful earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria caused the displacement of many people and exacerbated the risk of a food and nutrition crisis spreading.

Many have been forced to live in cars and makeshift tents, without access to basic amenities such as showers or toilets, after last month’s earthquake and aftershocks destroyed, or catastrophically damaged, at least 156,000 buildings in Turkey and killed more than 50,000 people across the country. Turkey and Syria.

Charities rushed to provide hot meals, loaves of bread and fresh water.

Among them, Action Against Hunger – which is supported by the Disaster Emergency Situations Committee – distributed ready-to-eat food rations sourced from nearby cities including canned chickpeas, chicken, tuna, vegetables and fruits in disaster hotspots in southeastern Turkey. Overall, ACH provided 2,500 kg of dry food and about 2,000 kg of fresh food.

But while food baskets are essential to help survivors stay strong and stay healthy, they don’t always contain food for people in the area to consume.

In the town of Beyoglu, near the southern city of Kahramanmaras and near the epicenters of the earthquakes, Action Against Hunger helped set up a kitchen to serve local dishes and fresh food in a community center next to a soccer field where people camp afterwards. lose their homes.

The kitchen also helps people rebuild their sense of community in a time of crisis, says Ana Mora Segura, a spokeswoman for Action Against Hunger who has been in Turkey since the earthquake.

More about the Turkey and Syria earthquake

She told Sky News: “Places that people have known their whole lives are either damaged or lost, which is very upsetting, so being able to come together and work on their own to provide for their needs is the first step to rebuilding society.”

The kitchen provides 3,000 people a day with meals containing ingredients typically found in the Mediterranean diet, including fresh foods and local dishes based on oil, olives, yoghurt, fruits, vegetables, and grains.

It also provides a sense of reassurance to those still reeling from the disaster.

says a 20-year-old Turkish man who has been staying in tents and a kitchen since the earthquake.

“We also feel very safe in the tents because of the security forces in the area,” he added.

Photo: Volunteers distributing food to families. Pic: Bradley Secker/Dec

Providing local food gives people a sense of normality

While the foods in the standard relief kit are greatly appreciated by those affected by the emergency, providing local foods has helped give people a sense of normalcy, says Cristina Izquierdo, Nutrition and Health Coordinator for Action Against Hunger’s emergency team.

Read more: Shocking images of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Is more aid sent to Turkey than to Syria?

“These are some of the most flexible people,” she told Sky News. “Some people bring everything they have to others…that feeling of supporting each other really brings hope.

“People are grateful to be alive and ready to support their community.”

The community center also supports the displaced in other ways, with donated clothes, heaters and hygiene items such as sanitary pads, soap, baby wipes and diapers.

Image: Akef left his restaurant in Souk and traveled with friends to help prepare the community kitchen. Pic: Ana Mora Segura/ACH

I have a job here

One of the volunteers in the kitchen is Akif, who, as news of the disaster spread, heard that help was urgently needed in Beyoglu, where a large number of homes were destroyed.

Leaving his restaurant in the city of Soke on Turkey’s Aegean coast, he traveled with his friends to help prepare the community’s cuisine.

“My friends told me to go home, but my family is safe, that’s why I came,” Akef says. “I have work to do here.”

Akef and other volunteers have also prepared parcels to be distributed to nearby mountain villages and families who remain near their collapsed homes.

Photo: Food aid distribution by Action Against Hunger. Pics: Bradley Secker/Dec

Rebuild a sense of community in a time of crisis

Ms Izquierdo says people were “very humble” and initially only asked for rice, but were then asked about their local diet and things they would like the charity to provide, including fresh food and vegetables, as well as products for children such as yoghurt and other dairy products. .

A range of dishes were served, such as Turkish rice with sehriyeh, a type of pasta similar to vermicelli, and chickpea and tomato soup.

But Action Against Hunger warns of the risk of food insecurity spreading in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, as access to food is more difficult than before the disaster as many people lose their homes, jobs and livelihoods. People in Syria also have to contend with the lingering effects of the country’s 12-year civil war as well as the damage caused by the earthquake.

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