Update from Berlin: the boy and his friends delivered their food to the refugees at the Hbf today (they made the tacos last Friday, but because there’s a heavy volunteer presence on the weekend, thought that they’d wait to deliver food today when it was needed more. So, they kept the tacos in the fridge and heated them up today to take down there). There’s still a lot of refugees passing through there, day-in, day-out.
They had about 100 tacos. He said they were all gone in less than 10 minutes. They walked in the door of the staging area, and were immediately approached by several families. He had written some Ukrainian on his arm so he could say “food,” “you’re welcome,” and to tell them whether the tacos were meat or vegetarian. He said the crowd was very excited to get something with meat. The German volunteer effort has picked up speed, and is now providing hot food, but it’s a simple vegetable soup, so folks wanting something more portable, or something with meat, and were excited to get the option.
Here's his arm with the vocabulary he had handy:
He told me about the crowd, said it was a lot of families. He kind of choked up a bit when he said “dad….it was a LOT of kids.”
When they got there, they were so mobbed just distributing the food that he didn’t have time to capture what the scene was like. He did snap a picture of the reception area they have set up (one of the less crowded parts):
And you can see some of the system behind his friends, carrying the now-empty trays and napkins they handed out:
His friends came with him to the Hbf this time (he needed the extra hands to carry all the trays of food). He said they got a bit wide-eyed about how much it was appreciated, and on the way back they all concluded they want to do this some more, and scale up operations. Also, they’ll go heavy on tacos with meat, because those were a hot commodity. They all agreed that it’s fun to hang out in the kitchen together for a few hours cooking, and then it takes no time at all to give the food away. He’s only going to be in Berlin a few more weeks, but they expect to do this a few more times now. He asked, and I told him I’d set up some sort of fundraising mechanism so they can turn cash into tacos. At first he suggested a cap, and then said “you know what…..however much people give us, we can turn into hot meals, so we’ll take whatever we can get.” I’ll figure something out and share with anyone interested, probably tonight after I chat with the wife.
Just to remind us about some “good stories about human beings,” there are a LOT of folks over there doing a lot of good. From World Central Kitchen, to the ad hoc German volunteers who have set up a whole system to greet and assist arriving refugees, the swell of good people doing good things is big, and real. So, as discouraging as shit is in this literal time of plagues, war, and famine, there’s some twinkling lights shining.