Refugee Community Kitchen is a humanitarian project created to offer cooked meals to migrants in camps in northern France. In its nearly two years of operation, the initiative has donated more than 1.5 million meals.
The slogan of the initiative Refugee Community Kitchen (RCK) - "feeding people without judgment" - is at the heart of this humanitarian project that has been operating for nearly two years, offering hot meals to tens of thousands of migrants in refugee camps in northern France. The project collaborates with various organizations in Calais, Dunkirk, and Grande Synthe.
Over 1.5 million meals in two years
RCK was founded in 2015 by Steve Bedlam, Sam Jones, Paula Gallardo, and Janie Mac. "Having seen tens of thousands of people forced to leave their homes and living in awful conditions in northern France, a group of us - event organisers, chefs, caterers, doulas, and activists - came together to offer assistance in the form of nourishing meals and access to fresh food daily," the group said on its website. "We pooled together our skills and those of our resourceful friends and anyone else who wanted to help, and set up Refugee Community Kitchen to serve the camps in Calais, Dunkirk and beyond".
Since 2015, RCK has cooked seven days a week and delivered more than 1.5 million meals, amounting to tonnes of food, as well as having built kitchens in Calais, Dunkirk and Grand Synthe. They support other organizations in camps in northern France and have sent food supplies to Syria and to volunteers who support migrants in Paris.
Food and denouncing conditions in French camps
In addition to operational support in French migrant camps, the organization uses social media to provide updates on migrants in Calais, Dunkirk and Grand Synthe, denouncing the difficult living conditions for those in camps the country's north and calling for the constant support of public opinion.