A team from World Central Kitchen — an international non-profit organisation that provides food relief — is now in Jamaica serving hot meals and sandwiches to people who were severely impacted by Category 4 Hurricane Beryl which pounded parishes along the island’s south coast last Wednesday.

Max Balbewei, a volunteer from Guatemala, and other members of the organisation, were spotted by the Jamaica Observer in Bushy Park, St Catherine, on Sunday handing out meals to residents in the flood-prone community.

“We just got here. This is our second day officially in the field, but our third day on the ground and we’ve been assessing and identifying where the need is. Our first response is to bring sandwiches and then once we assess the need, our second goal is to bring hot meals to the people,” said Balbewei.

“We’re in the scouting phase, but we’ve been to a lot of places and we’re moving all over the place. Right now we came [to Bushy Park] to assess and we gave food immediately. We don’t come empty-handed, we move and we feed,” he said.

World Central Kitchen is a United States-based team of food first responders to natural disasters, man-made crises, and humanitarian emergencies around the world. It was founded in 2010 by Spanish-American Michelin-starred Chef Jose Andres and his wife Patricia Fernandez de la Cruz with the belief that “a nourishing meal in a time of crisis is so much more than a plate of food — it’s hope, it’s dignity, and it’s a sign that someone cares.”

World Central Kitchen volunteers taking relief packages from their motor vehicle for distribution in Bushy Park, St Catherine, last Sunday.

Over the past week, team members provided thousands of hot meals and sandwiches, hundreds of cases of water, and fresh fruit to the communities hardest-hit by Hurricane Beryl in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Jamaica.

Since the team’s arrival in Jamaica, they have worked with local restaurants on the south coast of the island to provide food for residents in St Elizabeth, Manchester, and Clarendon, the parishes hit hardest by the hurricane.

“We fly, we get in cars, we walk, we hike, we do whatever we can. We connect with friends and people that will guide us through. They’ll tell us where they know that there is an official need and then we get there,” said Balbewei.

“In this case, our friend guided us to this area [Bushy Park]. He said he knew people here in the region and yesterday we flew around and we saw that this was an area of need, and so we just connect the dots and we find our way,” he told the Observer.

Heavy rains and strong winds from Hurricane Beryl flooded sections of Bushy Park last week Wednesday. The situation worsened when further showers, brought on by a tropical wave on Friday, caused a bridge in the community to collapse, leaving many stranded.

Balbewei and his team were observed on Sunday carrying food packages to residents who extended gratitude for the organisation’s help.

Collette Elliot, a resident of the community for more than 30 years, walked through ankle-deep water as she collected a food package from Balbewei and his team. She told the
Observer that the food package was timely as it would help her to feed a 92-year-old man in her care.

She explained that she gets paid by the hour and works a long way from home so when she’s at work she is unable to come home and feed the elderly man. That results in her relying on the assistance of others.

“If I travel I don’t have any money to give him anything to eat. I have a little friend who I will leave money with or I will give my daughter some money, tell her to put the money in the house and my friend take it to buy him something to eat,” she said.

“I really did need [this] for him, so he can have something to eat when I am gone. You know how far this can go? Because all tomorrow him still have sandwich to eat, so I really appreciate it,” she said, tears filling her eyes.

Elliot said that her house floods every time there is heavy rain and on numerous occasions she contemplated moving, but couldn’t find it within herself to pack up and leave.

“I started to build my house from in the 90s. One evening I came from work and when I reached up at the gate the water reached up at my ankle, and when I reached inside the yard the water deh a me knee. I said, ‘Me nah build nothing more’ and I left. But I have to come back because it’s willed to me, so I have no other option. I don’t really want anybody take it over and do what them want with it,” she explained.

Across the island, government and non-government organisations and individuals have come together to provide care packages for people hardest hit by Beryl.