According to its own statements, the non-profit organization Kubus currently supplies around 150 people, most of them refugees from Ukraine, with food every working day at its own food station and soup kitchen in Berlin-Neukölln.
The team is reaching its own limits: The station has long since exceeded its own capacities, writes Kubus Managing Director Siegfried Klaßen in a letter to the Neukölln politicians, which is available to the Tagesspiegel. Kubus organizes a soup kitchen on Teupitzer Straße, where refugees get a hot lunch for free and other needy people get a warm lunch for 1.80 euros.
For this purpose, the carrier collects food donations from the surrounding supermarkets, the Märkisches Landbrot bakery and the Berliner Tafel. The groceries that are not needed for lunch are given to the needy free of charge on weekdays from 12 p.m. “Some people are already queuing at 9 a.m. because they are afraid they will not get anything anymore,” Klaßen writes in the letter.
The kitchen gives out around 100 meals a day, including many children. At the same time, around 1,000 people visited the Kubus clothing store in July alone. The donations have not covered the need for a long time: the food distribution at the Tafel has been reduced for a long time, and the clothing store now has to be partially restricted.
“When it comes to hygiene products, we have been living from hand to mouth for a long time. We hardly ever have diapers, baby cream or the like in the house,” Klaßen writes. In addition, there would be rising energy costs, which would also affect social agencies. “Sooner or later there will be no free food, nor will we be able to keep the 1.80 euros for the poor people up,” says Kubus spokesman Gernot Zessin.
If you want to support the soup kitchen and table station, you will find the list of current needs here. Donations can be made to Kubus at Teupitzer Straße 39 on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. All information about the donation account can be found here.