Cooking for Calais: Food on the Frontline of the Refugee Crisis

France’s notorious ‘Jungle Camp‘ may have been dismantled in 2016 but for hundreds of refugees still stranded in Calais, daily life in the port city is brutally hard. This year, CulinaryCorps is launching its first ever “Pilot Trip” staffed entirely by previous CulinaryCorps trip leaders in an attempt to understand how we can best provide ongoing assistance to those struggling to survive on the frontlines of the refugee crisis, both in Europe and beyond.

From November 10th-15th, our seasoned team will be volunteering at Refugee Community Kitchen located on the outskirts of Calais, France. Each day, we will help cook the daily menus, learn best practices, and if time allows, lead culinary classes for the long term volunteers that have given so much of themselves to nourish others.

Our goal is to cook between 1000 to 1500 meals per day for the refugees living in the nearby constellation of makeshift camps populated by mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, all waiting for an opportunity to apply for asylum or join family members residing in other countries. We also will be making a monetary donation to RCK to cover food and ingredient costs for all meals served during our stay.

In addition to cooking in the kitchen, our leadership team is tasked with creating a sustainable engagement model so we can design future trips to Calais (as well as other refugee communities here and abroad) so both CulinaryCorps alumni as well as new volunteers can engage with this important work.

If you are interested in joining a similar trip in 2020 or beyond, please fill out this VOLUNTEER INTEREST form. And if you would like to donate to help fund this trip, please DONATE to our crowdfunding campaign to help us meet our team fundraising goal.

 

                          

One Response

  1. Lisa Slater says:

    Hi, Christine:
    I would love to participate in this trip. What are the dates? I have submitted a form twice. I hope you received it.

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