Following the passage of the devastating super typhoon in early November, local staff and volunteers from Food for Life are working to provide for as many victims as possible by distributing hot meals. They have now managed to find suitable locations for cooking, from which they can provide meals for thousands of people every day. However, this requires 24-hour, selfless work, often in areas where their lives are at risk.
November 11 (Monday)
A group of volunteers from Manila set out for the city of Legaspi, from where they will continue on a two-day boat trip to Samar. Their slight delay was caused by the fact that various aid organizations set out almost simultaneously with their shipments in the same direction.
„The situation is very difficult because people have become completely frantic and are in despair due to hunger and the trauma they’ve endured,” says Balaráma Das, the leader of the local six-person volunteer team. Another Manila volunteer team from the Food for Life program is ready to go.
„We’re trying to secure support from several sources: a group in Manila is collecting donations from locals, but others have also joined in the effort to seek out international funding,” says Radha-lila, the coordinator of our program in the Philippines. „The main challenge we face in our efforts is transportation. Our current food distribution vehicle, which we use for our daily work in Manila, is unreliable for such a long trip. I reached out to the Indian Chamber of Commerce because they have connections with the C-130 (the military), and they have previously helped transport the collected prepared meals; however, the director of the Charity Department informed me that they are unable to assist at this time. I also contacted the Red Cross to ask if they could lend us a transport vehicle, which they agreed to, but unfortunately, two days ago, all of their vehicles were deployed. These are difficult times, and while transportation is the most critical part of our relief effort, we haven’t had much luck so far.”
„We could also rent vehicles from areas that have remained intact to transport the prepared hot meals to the hardest-hit areas. At the moment, the most practical solution would be to use helicopters to transport the food by air. Volunteers from all over the world have offered their help.”
November 15 (Friday)
„Yesterday afternoon, one of our volunteer teams reported that they had begun distributing food at the Abuyog Cultural Center in Leyte. They are distributing 1,000 servings of rice and soup per day. It’s not easy, because they, too, live in the area hit by the typhoon and can only go shopping every three days at a location an hour away from them, using the meager donations they’ve managed to collect from the locals.” — Radha-lila reports on local events.
In Northern Cebu, the second-largest city in the Philippines, another team will begin work within a few days to provide hot meals to the victims.
„We will provide food for the evacuees who will be transported from the capital, Tacloban, to Manila at 11 p.m. tonight. By November 26, more than 2,000 victims will have arrived at this location,” adds the program coordinator.
’Here in Leyte, we will continue distributing food until November 21, at which point we will move to Iloilo and Cebu to continue our work there and help those in need. Our accommodations will be a partially ruined auditorium provided to us by the local government in Abuyogi. The interior is waterlogged, so we’ll have to cover the floor with pallets to stay dry while we work,” — explains Radha-lila.
November 18 (Monday)
Last night, we began distributing food at the Villamori Air Base. More than 2,000 people are expected to arrive here; every day, more victims are gathering—people who have lost everything and are trying to find their relatives in Manila. We cooked hot rice and a tofu and bean curry.
The Food for Life team served more than 2,000 meals in Tacloban City, Palob, and Leyte. On Monday, November 17, they provided hot meals to 1,500 people in Mayorga, Dulag, and Tolosa. „We’re working almost around the clock,” says Balaráma Das. „It takes a lot of time to prepare the meals under such difficult conditions. We start work at 1:00 a.m. and set out around 8:00 a.m. to distribute the food. We return around noon and immediately start again to prepare the afternoon delivery.”
„People are very happy when we give them food. They literally run after us. The situation in Tacloban has calmed down somewhat, as most of the local residents have already left the city.”
„We currently plan to be able to provide continuous meals for 3 to 6 months,” explains Radha-lila. Volunteers from the Food for Life Program plan to set up five camps at various locations in the disaster-stricken region, where they will organize food distribution twice a day at each site, serving 2,500 people per distribution. The necessary raw materials and products will be continuously sourced from nearby areas that have remained intact.
Several aid organizations are working in the region, but the freshly prepared vegetarian meals provided by the Food for Life Program offer unparalleled support to the victims of the disaster. „We are the only organization distributing food,” says Balarám. „The others provide cold food, dry pasta, and uncooked rice. The support from the Food for Life Program is truly significant and provides real nourishment for the body, mind, and soul alike. It makes us happy, too, to see the smiling faces as they eat. It’s a truly touching sight.”