TOTAL TRIP STATS
☑️5,400 meals made and distributed with our incredible host organization, Refugee Community Kitchen
☑️1,300 pieces of sticky toffee pudding made and distributed
☑️288 volunteer manpower hours served
☑️47,400 miles traveled by the CulinaryCorps Team
DAILY STATS
Day 1 Update
✅1,200 hot meals cooked for distribution to refugees on this cold and rainy night. (Menu = A lovely lentil and parsnip curry with fried lemons and coriander created by RCK’s lead cook, Rosie, basmati rice with bay leaf, fresh salad with roasted beets and homemade dressing, and loads of hot black tea and sugar).
✅100 volunteers fed by the CulinaryCorps crew using odds and ends scrounged from the walk-in. (Menu = cabbage slaw with lemon and dates, stir fried noodles with fresh cilantro and Napa cabbage, guacamole with homemade tortilla chips.)
✅ Pots washed and dried. And then even MORE pots washed and dried.
✅ Kitchen scrubbed, swept, and reorganized for tomorrow.
✅ Lessons learned about how to cook, love, and give from the heart. ♥️
✅ Day 1 done and dusted! Now it’s time to .
PS: Thank you @refugeecommunitykitchen for being such incredible hosts! @ Calais, France
Day 2 Update
☑️ 90 liters (about 200 pounds) of homemade hummus made by the CulinaryCorps crew.
☑️ 1,200 meals made with love in the RCK kitchen including spiced basmati rice, chickpea red curry with dark chocolate (a wonderfully inventive dish by Floyd, a longtime RCK volunteer), chopped salad, and plenty of sweet hot tea on yet another cold and wet night.
☑️ 16 kilograms of Medjool dates pitted for tomorrow’s surprise dessert.
☑️ 2 trips to the local restaurant supply store to buy over $1k in food and equipment donations.
☑️ 1 walk-in fridge emptied, scrubbed, and reorganized.
☑️ 500 meals served in the Dunkirk Camp by CulinaryCorps volunteers reminding us how food can nourish not only the body but the mind and soul. Feeling tired but thankful. Onwards to Day 3! @ Calais, France
☑️ In our free time, washing loads of dishes in the dish pit.
Day 3 Update
✅ 60 liters of lemony vegan aioli made from the chickpea water saved from yesterday’s hummus (Surprisingly, an oft requested and favorite condiment of the people we are serving and the volunteers too.)
✅ Another 1,200 meals made for distribution to refugees in the area including lemon and curry leaf infused rice, leek and sweet potato curry, fresh salad with shredded carrots, and hot tea on yet another bone chilling night.
✅ Hundreds of pounds of carrots peeled, leeks chopped, sweet potatoes cubed, cauliflower prepped, and fresh ginger pureed. Plus 200 pounds (maybe more!) of onions sliced.
✅ 1,000 servings of sticky toffee pudding baked by the CulinaryCorps team using donated dates languishing in storage and some good ‘ol chef ingenuity when we realized the mixer didn’t work.
✅ 400 meals delivered and served by two of our CulinaryCorps chefs with the RCK distribution team
✅ Endless thanks for the roof over our heads, the hot shower at our fingertips, the meals of our choosing, and the freedom to return home whenever we wish. Things we’ll never, ever, take for granted.
Day 4 Update
☑️ 1,800 meals made for the Dunkirk, Calais, and Brussels camps under the guidance of the @refugeecommunitykitchen rockstar volunteers. Menu = Afghani beans with tomato and garlic, shorba soup with potato, fluffy basmati rice, and salad with beautiful Chioggia beets plus hot sweet tea and plenty of condiments (including the CulinaryCorps hummus) to customize each plate.
☑️ 1,300 pieces of sticky toffee pudding cut, bagged, and distributed to the refugees as well as all the volunteers in the RCK kitchen and warehouse. A rare sweet treat on yet another bone chilling day.
☑️ 22 pounds of custom-blended garam masala made to infuse some CulinaryCorps love into next week’s curries.
☑️ Hundreds of pounds of produce chopped including pumpkins, tomatoes, carrots, and onions. So. Many. Onions.
☑️ Hotel pans cleaned, giant pots dried, floors squeegeed, walls washed, and tables scrubbed.
☑️ 550 meals distributed to the (mainly) Kurdish men, women and children living in the Dunkirk Camp by CC volunteers from 4:30pm until dark. Each refugee accounted for by the spoon they received to eat their meal.
☑️ Tears shed. Hearts open. A trip over. A journey just begun.