125,000 Meals in Germany Following Floods
Several weeks after severe flooding caused massive destruction across western Europe, WCK is closing out our relief operations in Germany. The country saw the once in a century rainfall inundate entire towns, destroying infrastructure and leaving many without water and electricity. The flooding tragically killed close to 200 people and others are still missing. Germany was the hardest hit by flooding and families who have lived in these areas for years shared that they had never seen anything like this.
The WCK team arrived in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate on July 17 to assess the situation and begin to set up relief efforts. The next day we started meal service in the district of Ahrweiler with three food trucks serving about 4,000 meals to impacted families as well as crews and volunteers working on clean up. By the end of the week, WCK had partnered with 10 food trucks across 10 locations in the state – serving up to 13,000 meals a day.
Flood damage made it difficult to access certain areas and allow for both our team and communities to reach one another. Our Relief Team adapted to the conditions and found creative solutions to make sure hot meals were getting to affected families. Working with local groups, our team was able to find alternative transportation routes and set up sites in areas in need of fresh meals.
With the help of our local volunteers, the WCK team also packaged cooked meals from our food truck partners to transport them to families and people helping clean up who could not get to the trucks. Pictured on the far left above is Pie Me’s tomato pasta bake with salad which was packaged and walked over to residents in Altenahr.
In Ahrweiler, WCK’s Chef Mollie and volunteer Kiki, pictured above on the far right, hand delivered Bier-schmiede’s goulash to people who could not leave their homes. Their version of the delicious traditional soup was prepared with tomato base, beef, potato, onion, and paprika.
In total, the WCK Relief Team served nourishing dishes at 11 sites, working with local food trucks to serve more than 125,000 meals. Our food partners served a variety of German and vegetarian dishes from chicken schnitzel to vegetable cream soup. The busy lunch and dinner rushes have slowed down as power is being restored, professional crews take over much of the clean up efforts from volunteers, and engineers are on site working on larger restoration projects.
The worst hit areas are once again becoming accessible and the water has mostly withdrawn. WCK is wrapping up our efforts today to allow the impacted communities continue their transition into long-term recovery.
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