Volunteer Kitchens Feed Thousands in Central Vietnam Floods

Inside the race to cook and deliver hot meals

At a flooded petrol station in Phu Huu Hamlet, Hoa Thinh Commune, a blue tarp sags under steady rain while smoke rises from rows of open fires. Volunteers in plastic ponchos chop vegetables with cold fingers and stir heavy pots of rice and stew. It is late morning, and hundreds of residents in conical hats stand in a quiet line for a free lunch. Some open their boxes and eat on the spot. Many have not had a hot meal for four days.

Two small trucks from the same kitchen pull into a muddy lane toward My Lam Hamlet, where water still lingers in the fields. Villagers wade out to meet them, sandals sinking into silt. The kitchen crew leans out of the truck bed to pass down boxes of food before turning back to reload. On that morning alone, a vegetarian charity group known as Nhat Tam Chay distributed two thousand meals and essential items to people emerging from the flood.

Scenes like this have spread across Phu Yen and neighboring provinces after days of extreme rain, overflowing rivers and landslides. Power lines went down. Roads were cut. Food ran short. Volunteer cooks stepped in with something simple and lifesaving: hot rice, vegetables, fish and soup, then another batch, and another after that. The work runs without pause, often through the night.

Head cook Nguyen Khac Chung leads the team under the tarp. He calls their camp a kitchen of five no’s: no electricity, no clean water, no place to sleep, no toilets, and no time to shower. Clean water and gas arrive by motorbike, and monks at Truc Lam Zen Monastery steam rice up the hill, sending about four hundred kilograms a day down to the station. By noon, every grain is gone.

Chung says the urgency became plain on the first distribution day (Nov. 23), when hunger turned a waiting crowd into a surge the moment the truck stopped. His team boosted output within hours and kept going without rest.

Chung explained how the sight of long lines changed the team.

Seeing people finally have rice to eat when they are starving makes our exhaustion disappear.

The kitchens and the people who keep them running

What began as a small crew of a dozen volunteers has grown into a battery of cooks, drivers and packers. Some have worked three nights in a row. One woman sits near the fires, stirring two or three pans at once and refusing to lie down. Another volunteer flew in from Hanoi to join the effort. As soon as the morning runs end, the team begins forming thousands of afternoon portions so families have strength to clean up and begin repairs.

Thirty kilometers away in Tuy Hoa City, a group known for running rice ATMs during the pandemic has set up stoves at a budget hotel that now functions as command center and kitchen. Organizer Nguyen Dang Hau arrived at dawn on Nov. 23 with a core team and immediately set up cooking stations. A power outage on the first day kept the total to a little more than sixteen hundred meals, but the next day, with local supporters, they reached twenty five hundred lunches and dinners. In parallel, they mobilized dozens of tonnes of rice, bottled water and other supplies for delivery to outlying hamlets.

These crews do more than cook. They plan, scout, and navigate damaged roads. Teams move in by boat when that is the only way. They verify locations where elderly residents shelter upstairs, where families live on rooftops, and where children have gone days without clean water. The goal is simple: arrive with food in hand and leave no pocket of need untouched.

Neighbors feeding neighbors

Some of the most effective kitchens were not founded by large groups at all, but by flood victims themselves. In Le Loc Binh Hamlet, Son Thanh Commune, Ho Thi Bich Tram and her neighbors live on slightly higher ground. When the water rose, they pooled what food they had and began cooking for those still trapped below. One household that relies on charity in normal times brought five kilograms of rice and ten boxes of instant noodles to share. At first the cooks made papaya and peanuts. As donations arrived, they added meat and fish and now turn out four hundred hot portions a day.

Volunteers ferry meals down roads churned into sludge. They push through knee deep water and deliver meals to places where few outsiders have reached. For residents climbing down from rooftops or clearing mud from floors, these deliveries are the first sign that help has found them.

Tram described an encounter on Nov. 23 that she cannot forget, as her team stepped into a narrow alley in Hoa Thinh.

A man in his seventies came out shivering. When we handed him a hot box of rice, he burst into tears like a child. He said, I have not eaten for days. I am so hungry.

The promise of a hot meal has become more than nutrition. It signals that neighbors and strangers alike refuse to leave anyone behind.

Relief at scale and the race to reach isolated areas

Behind the smoke of field kitchens, a broader mobilization is moving food and equipment across the region. City leaders, the military and civic groups have set up collection points, sorted donations and loaded convoys that run day and night. In major cities, thousands of volunteers have gathered clothing, bottled water and ready to eat food, then moved on to fuel, medicines and tools for cleanup. Trucks pull out under floodlights, bound for the worst hit zones along the south central coast and into the Central Highlands.

Officials report that more than one thousand tonnes of essentials have been collected and transported in just days, and that the stream of supplies continues to flow. In many communes, duty forces, youth groups and monks are working in shared kitchens to feed residents and those on the front lines of cleanup. In one commune, three kitchen areas are preparing around twenty five thousand meals daily and will keep going until life stabilizes. Elsewhere, communities are wrapping traditional rice cakes, preparing preserved fish and cooking for hospitals, schools and isolated households.

The scale of damage is severe. Provincial education departments say dozens of schools and several hospitals suffered heavy damage. Tens of thousands of students are out of class while mud is cleared and buildings are repaired. Across multiple provinces, authorities list more than one hundred people dead or missing, with overall losses in the billions of Vietnamese dong. The military has evacuated tens of thousands, deployed helicopters to reach isolated areas and set up command posts to coordinate deliveries.

Some hamlets remain cut off. In Hiep Dong Village in Dak Lak Province, floodwaters surrounded more than two hundred households for a week. Roads stayed under half a meter of water. Supplies had to be gathered near a bridge and moved by canoe through tricky currents and past submerged power lines. A field kitchen on higher ground provided daily meals while volunteers navigated in and out with aid.

The delivery challenges are real. Crews must judge where the water is shallow enough to push and where it is too fast to risk. They wait out bursts of rain. They track who has received food and who still needs help. In this work, coordination with village officials and hamlet heads has made all the difference, making sure meals and supplies arrive where need is greatest.

From instant noodles to what families need next

When floodwaters rise, priorities are simple. People need ready food that requires no cooking, clean water, and basic warmth. Instant noodles, rice boxes and bottled water keep people alive until the water drops and stoves can be lit again. Demand changes quickly once families can return to their kitchens.

Relief crews in the region say the next wave of needs now includes items that restore daily life and protect health. Families need gas stoves, large water containers, disinfectants, common medicines, and items that protect dignity and hygiene. Women and children often lack supplies that are rarely discussed but essential in any emergency.

• warm clothing, blankets and mosquito nets
• portable gas stoves and fuel
• water containers, filters, and soap
• medicines for respiratory and skin infections
• baby formula, diapers, and sanitary pads
• flashlights, batteries and phone charging options
• staples such as rice, cooking oil, fish sauce and canned protein

These items matter because cleanup brings new risks. Mud piles up. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes. People work in cold rain and wet clothes. Fuel is scarce, firewood is soaked, and power can be out for days. Relief teams emphasize that as soon as families can cook, hot rice and simple staples help people regain strength faster than instant noodles. Cash support also becomes useful at this stage, letting households buy what they specifically need and supporting local shops as they reopen.

Local leaders encourage aid groups to coordinate deliveries, share information on what is needed in each commune, and avoid congestion on damaged roads. The aim is to match supplies to needs, reduce duplication, and speed up the move from emergency feeding to cleanup and recovery.

Why flooding in central Vietnam turns deadly fast

Central Vietnam sits between steep mountains and a narrow coastal plain. Rain that falls in the mountains rushes down short river systems into low lying areas with limited places to drain. When storms stall or deliver several days of intense rain, rivers rise quickly and push into towns and rice fields. Landslides cut roads and isolate villages. Even areas that rarely flood can go under if the rain is heavy enough.

Urban growth increases risk when new neighborhoods extend into flood zones, drainage lags behind construction, or slopes lose vegetation. Climate change adds another layer of danger as the region sees heavier rain events. When several conditions align, the result is what residents experienced this week: fast rising water, prolonged isolation and widespread damage to homes, crops and public services.

Volunteer kitchens find their niche in this geography. They can pop up on any patch of high ground with access to water and fire. They meet the first need most families have in a disaster, then adjust as conditions change. Their mobility and local knowledge complement the large scale efforts of the military, city agencies and aid groups that bring in heavy logistics and specialized support.

Recovery priorities and how communities are organizing

As waters recede, the focus turns to cleaning mud, repairing homes and reopening schools. City leaders have announced emergency funds for the most affected provinces and coordinated teams to repair classrooms, restore telecom stations and stabilize prices. Health crews have begun vaccinations and health checks to prevent infections during cleanup. The education sector is moving to replace lost materials, with a plan for millions of free textbooks to reach students in flood zones.

Community groups and city committees have opened many collection points and banks are receiving donations. Organizers say every contribution, large or small, can translate into shovels, fuel, and materials to patch roofs. Teams are matching donor interests with specific needs, like rebuilding a classroom, replacing basic furniture or purchasing pumps to clear standing water.

Relief groups also stress a principle widely accepted in disaster response: food first, then dignity items and tools, and finally cash assistance to help families make their own choices. In rural areas, recovery support will include seeds, livestock, and credit so farmers can restart production. Small traders and shop owners need help to clean premises and buy stock. The faster local economies restart, the sooner communities regain stability.

Back at the flooded petrol station, the pots are still boiling. In kitchens across the region, the message is the same. The work will continue until the last outlying hamlet has hot food and the most isolated families have what they need to stand on their own again.

The volunteer leaders who built these kitchens in a few frantic days each offered the same promise when asked when they would stop.

We will keep cooking until everyone here is okay.

Key Points

• Volunteer kitchens in Phu Yen and nearby provinces are serving thousands of hot meals daily as floods disrupt power and roads.
• One team led by Nguyen Khac Chung operates under a tarp with no electricity or clean water, supported by monks cooking hundreds of kilograms of rice.
• Another group in Tuy Hoa scaled from sixteen hundred to twenty five hundred meals in a day and mobilized dozens of tonnes of supplies.
• Locals like Ho Thi Bich Tram launched neighborhood kitchens that now deliver hundreds of hot portions to hard to reach hamlets.
• Officials report more than one thousand tonnes of aid collected and transported in recent days, with large scale support from city agencies and the military.
• Some areas remain isolated, such as Hiep Dong Village in Dak Lak, where supplies moved by canoe and a field kitchen operated on higher ground.
• Needs are shifting from instant food to gas stoves, water containers, hygiene items, medicines and basic clothing as cleanup begins.
• Education services suffered damage, with many students out of class while schools are repaired and materials replaced.
• Authorities and volunteers emphasize coordination so aid matches local needs and speeds the transition from emergency feeding to recovery.
• Volunteer leaders say they will keep cooking until every affected community has access to food and essential supplies.