Weekly update 01/26 Engels

The weather can throw all sorts of things off course; for example, our New Year's reception was canceled, and the Netherlands was briefly world news. This was largely due to the problems with train and air traffic. A minor inconvenience compared to what the people of Ukraine are experiencing, to give just one example.

The shipment of relief supplies from Broek op Langedijk resumed last Wednesday. We were able to put together a very nice load for Breaza. The truck arrived at 9:00 AM and was able to depart for Roermond before noon. From there, it will travel by train to Oradea, and upon arrival in Oradea, it will continue by road to Breaza.

Here is the link to a photo album.

A company in Roosendaal had a shipment of excellent quality orange juice available for charities. Jorg Breddermann was eager to pick up a trailer full for his projects in Ukraine. His trailer was loaded at this company on Thursday, January 8th, and after clearing customs, he began his journey. Saturday evening I received another message from him, sent from the German-Austrian border.

On Friday, January 9th, another trailer was fully loaded in Roosendaal and is now on its way to Breaza.

Imola has posted another update on their blog. The recipients of the Christmas packages in the various villages were happy with them, as were the other items that could be distributed.

Here's the link to the blog.

Large quantities of other products arrived in Broek op Langedijk throughout the week; their limited shelf life requires them to be transported quickly.

It's now truly winter in Romania, and the snow is making transport more difficult for Csaba. He continues to do his best to reach as many people as possible.

Via various webcams, you can get a feel for the winter weather, etc., in Romania. You'll see lots of pictures of beautiful cities and nature. The disadvantaged neighborhoods remain out of the picture. Here's the link to these cameras.

Here the link to this webcams

Joszi from Tirgu Mures is renovating the kitchen where he cooks for the children. So preparing meals this week isn't possible.

The winter holidays in Romania end on January 12th, when schools reopen and businesses get back to business.

Marin and Enico from Band have been making meals for the children again. There's a lot of snow clearing going on there too.

Here's the link to a photo album.

Henk Muller is at a meeting in Germany.

Here's the link to a photo album.

Viorel and Elena haven't been sitting idle, but have been working hard again. This is no easy task during these cold spells. The homeless shelter in Tirgu Mures has many more people than under normal circumstances. This project also required preparing more meals. It's good that we're supporting these people with their work.

Here's the link to a photo album.

Toth Attila from Peris was happy to be able to share some of his supplies from the Netherlands.

Here's the link to a photo album.

Reghina from Ticau was able to distribute some lovely food parcels.

Here's the link to a photo album.

We're not going to have a slow start to the year. We have a good supply, but some products have a short expiration date. Therefore, it's not advisable to leave them in our warehouse.

There's a lot of discussion about the expiration dates of products; there's a lot of ignorance about them. This is a major reason why a lot of food unnecessarily ends up in the trash. Especially because of "today's youth," in my opinion.

There are two types of expiration dates on packaging:

EXP is the "best before" date. This date concerns quality, often "good after" date. The advice is: look, smell, and taste.

EXP is the "use by" date. This date concerns safety, use before or on the expiration date. The advice is: do not use after this date.

We'll be loading two trailers next week. The first one will arrive at our doorstep at nine o'clock on Tuesday and will be shipped to Breaza. A loading crew is already in place for this. The second will arrive on Wednesday and will be shipped to Marghita. This means the perishable stock is out of our storage and on its way to Romania. Our contacts there can then help vulnerable people with it.