Food for life volunteers distribute pure vegan food daily to more than 1,000 victims of typhoon Yolanda-Haiyan in different barangays in Tacloban, Leyte and Samar. A total of 64,210 meals have been served over the last the two months from November 11, 2013 to January 11, 2014.

“Everyone has appreciated the kindness of the Food for Life team since the beginning. We are only our organisation here that provides properly cooked hot meals,” explains local director Julie Anne Borja (Radha Lila). “If not for Food for Life, they would only have the canned sardines provided by other relief organisations.”

The Red Cross sponsored water for Food for Life to hand out.

Weather Challenges

For the past two weeks, a low pressure system brought heavy rains to Tacloban and nearby places. However, the FFL volunteers braved the rain and stayed on, despite flooding in their makeshift kitchen and having to sleep inside wet tents. Their typical daily schedule is to travel one hour in the morning to collect vegetables and other ingredients and then  the rest of the day cooking and serving meals from morning to night to around 1200 people in different areas.

Many foreign volunteers have been helping the local FFL team, and they are expecting more Filipino volunteers to come in soon too. “Two couples from Australia are also expected to arrive next week, and with this increased volunteer manpower we are hoping to increase our prasadam distribution even more,” said Julie.