Turkey earthquake: Community kitchen near epicentre helps provide local dishes for people left homeless

The aftermath of two powerful earthquakes which rocked Turkey and Syria has left many people homeless and exacerbated the risk of a widespread food and nutrition crisis, charities say.

Many were forced to live in cars and temporary tents, with no access to basic amenities such as showers or toilets, after the quake and its aftershocks last month destroyed, or catastrophically damaged, at least 156,000 buildings in Turkey and killed more than 50,000 people across Turkey and Syria.

Charities rushed to provide hot meals, loaves of bread and fresh water.

Among them, Action Against Hunger – which is supported by the Disaster Emergencies Committee – distributed ready-to-eat rations sourced from nearby cities including canned chickpeas, chicken, tuna, vegetables and fruit in disaster hotspots in southeast Turkey. Overall, Action Against Hunger has supplied 2,500kg of dry food and nearly 2,000kg of fresh food.

But while the food baskets are vital in helping survivors keep their strength up and stay healthy, they do not always contain food typically consumed by people in the region.

In the town of Beyoglu, near the southern city of Kahramanmaras and close to the epicentres of the tremors, Action Against Hunger helped set up a kitchen to provide local dishes and fresh food in a community centre next to a football field where people are camping after losing their homes.

The kitchen also helps people rebuild their sense of community in a time of crisis, says Ana Mora Segura, a spokesperson for Action Against Hunger who has been in Turkey since the earthquake struck.

She tells Sky News: “The places people have known their whole lives are either damaged or gone, which is very disruptive, so being able to get together and act on their own to provide for themselves is the first step of rebuilding the community.”

The kitchen has been providing 3,000 people a day with meals containing ingredients typically found in the Mediterranean diet, including fresh foods and local dishes containing oil, olives, yoghurt, fruit, vegetables and grains.

It also provides a sense of reassurance for those still suffering from the disaster.

“For me, this community kitchen provides us with security, because we know we’re getting hot food at a certain time every day and aid on a regular basis,” says one 20-year-old Turkish man who has been staying in the tents and using the kitchen since the earthquake.

“We also feel very safe in the tents because of the security forces in the area.”

Providing local food gives people sense of normality

While the foods found in a typical relief kit are much appreciated by those affected by the emergency, providing local foods has helped give people a sense of normality, says Cristina Izquierdo, the nutrition and health coordinator for Action Against Hunger’s emergency team.

“These are some of the most resilient people,” she tells Sky News. “Some people bring everything they have to others… That sense of supporting each other really brings hope.

“People are grateful for the fact they are alive and are ready to support their community.”

The community centre also supports displaced people in other ways, through donated clothes, heaters and hygiene items such as sanitary pads, soap, baby wipes and nappies.

‘I have work to do here’

One of the volunteers in the kitchen is Akif, who, as news of the disaster spread, heard help was needed urgently in Beyoglu, where a large number of houses were destroyed.

Leaving his restaurant in Soke, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast, he travelled with his friends to help set up the community kitchen.

“My friends tell me to come back home, but my family is safe, that’s why I came,” Akif says. “I have work to do here.”

Akif and other volunteers also prepared packages to distribute in the nearby mountain villages and to families that have stayed near their collapsed homes.

Rebuilding a sense of community in a time of crisis

Ms Izquierdo says people were “very humble” and initially only asked for rice, but they were then asked about their local diet and the items they would like to see the charity help provide, including fresh food and vegetables, but also products for children such as yoghurt and other dairy products.

A range of dishes have been served, such as Turkish rice with sehriye, a type of pasta similar to vermicelli, and chickpea and tomato soup.

But Action Against Hunger warns the risk of widespread food insecurity has soared in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, with access to food becoming even more difficult than it was before the disaster as many people have lost their homes, jobs and livelihoods. People in Syria also have to contend with the ongoing effects of the country’s 12-year civil war on top of the damage wrought by the earthquake.