“The worst thing is to have nothing to do here,” says Alpha, leader of the helpers who support us every day by distributing meals to the sick residents of the camp in Lesbos.

“I like to help. I like to feel needed. If it wasn’t for Home for All and the responsibility of distributing meals, I wouldn’t have any other job. It’s a devastating feeling.”

We are standing next to a bus that has already distributed a total of more than 4.5 million meals to various places on the island over the last few years. On more than one occasion we thought it had reached the end. Rough roads, dust, potholes. A brave car. It commits itself to the limit and drives. Today it not only made it here, but is also providing shade. We stand huddled close to the boot, under the open hatch that shields us from the sun. 33 degrees in the shade. In the camp like a frying pan. 2500 people and maybe 6-7 trees. Eucalyptus trees. Sparse. Not much shade on offer.

We stand in the heat. Alfa talks about Sierra Leone and how this is the second time they have told him in Greece that he won’t get the documents. He will try a third time. He packs his meals in his bag, we take the map and set off.

We visit the sick in their shelters. ‘When someone is not there, we leave the meals at the door. No one will steal. Everyone knows it’s for the sick. You have to support each other.”

Alpha has no plans. He doesn’t know if he will stay on the island or go further afield. “It depends on the possibilities. I don’t have anyone to go to. If I’m needed here, I’ll stay here, if I find work elsewhere, I’ll go. Because life is about not being stuck doing nothing.”

That idleness is the worst is the chorus of our visit to the camp today. Everyone would like to do something, would like to be able to look for a job and earn their own money for food.

With food it is what it is. We ourselves don’t know how to put what is happening in the camp into a logical whole. There is much to suggest that it is not our cognitive abilities that are failing, but that we are actually dealing with chaos, in which those responsible for the camp are also failing to find their way.

According to the decision of the authorities, for several weeks now, meals are only due to those who are still refugees. You have been granted asylum or have just been refused it, you have no right to eat here. This makes the official caterers bring in far fewer meals than they used to and far fewer than there are residents here. The whole problem is that no one at the distrubution checks whether or not you are entitled to a meal under the new rules. So everyone queues, because everyone is hungry. At some point the food runs out. You have to leave. Try your luck tomorrow.

The people in the camp are condemned to idleness. We are not. Each of us can act and change a piece of this world for the better. You too! Donate at least one meal to our charges in Lesbos.