43,000 meals served in Venezuela and Guatemala after Julia
Hurricane Julia made landfall in Nicaragua on October 9 as a Category 1 storm. However, before slamming into Central America, Julia hit Venezuela as a tropical storm—the first such weather event to have tracked so far south in three decades.
Tropical Storm Julia caused catastrophic landslides in Las Tejerías, killing more than 40 people—dozens more remain missing—and destroying hundreds of homes in the mountainside community. Intense rain caused a nearby river to break its banks and sent trees and debris barreling down mountains toward the city where people had mere seconds to react.
WCK’s Relief Team reached Las Tejerías the day after the storm to assess how to best support the community. By the next day, our #ChefsForVenezuela team started delivering thousands of meals and has since provided more than 31,000 nourishing plates of food.
Miguel was outside one of Las Tejerías’ main churches where he operates a hot dog stand when the rain began on Saturday, October 8. “At around 4pm the thunder and rain started. By 6:30pm the lighting and rain became intense. The rain was very intense. When we lost power is when people started screaming that the river had broken its banks,” he told the WCK team.
Working alongside Caritas Venezuela and its local network of churches, WCK’s #ChefsForVenezuela team quickly identified distribution sites and accessed the most heavily impacted neighborhoods of Las Tejerías. Father Pedro Argenis heads the local parish and oversees Caritas’ work in the area. His deep roots in the community have proven invaluable to the success of our Relief Team’s meal distribution work.
Caritas volunteers are helping cook and distribute meals each day. Josefina, a volunteer cook at our partner kitchen, told the WCK team that she is pouring all her love into the relief effort to help neighbors through such a challenging time.
I have learned so many things through this experience. I have learned that it is important to help people in need.
Josefina
WCK’s efforts are aided by residents of affected neighborhoods who are helping deliver food door-to-door to ensure meals reach the most vulnerable families. Many of these volunteers have themselves lost family members, friends, and homes as very few people in the community were spared from the devastation.
Joel is one of the volunteers helping WCK’s Relief Team identify families in urgent need. Many of Joel’s neighbors lost their homes, so he has taken it upon himself to ensure their food needs are met.
Our team also met Gregory who lives in Caracas where he is completing his studies. As soon as he heard of the landslides, Gregory rushed to his hometown to check on his family. After making the 40-mile journey he learned that several friends had been swept away by the rushing water and that his family’s and his neighbor’s homes had suffered damage. Seeing the need, Gregory has stayed in Las Tejerías where he is helping the WCK team deliver meals.
In the past, WCK’s same #ChefsForVenezuela team responding now provided meals to migrants and refugees fleeing instability and supported nutrition security in Venezuela’s capital. From 2019 to 2022, WCK provided millions of hot meals, sandwiches, fruit, and dry goods to children and families in Cúcuta, Colombia—on Venezuela’s border—and in Caracas.
As Tropical Storm Julia continued its path toward Central America, it intensified, hitting Nicaragua as a Category 1 hurricane. Though it quickly lost strength, the storm dumped a large amount of rain over parts of the region that have already been struggling with a wetter-than-usual rainy season. The rain caused widespread flooding in Guatemala, particularly affecting communities in Alta Verapaz and Izabal that were among the hardest hit by back-to-back Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020.
WCK’s #ChefsForGuatemala team was on the ground in impacted communities, delivering fresh meals as soon as it was safe to do so. With knowledge gained during our response to Eta and Iota, the team quickly identified communities in urgent need of food and worked with our long-time restaurant partners to provide more than 12,000 meals over the course of five days.
WCK’s response in Guatemala reached the hardest-hit communities, including Panzós where hundreds of people live in extreme poverty. Families in the area live near a lake and river which caused widespread flooding. The damage in this region was compounded by the fact that infrastructure has not fully recovered since the damage caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota.
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