Grassroots · Geitawi, Achrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon
Nation Station
A disused Beirut petrol station turned neighbour-run community kitchen and mutual aid hub
Shine Sunlight to follow their work and see how it grows.
Since 2020Works across the region
Started by Geitawi residents the day after the 4 August 2020 port explosion, Nation Station turned an abandoned petrol station into a hub for crowdsourced water, food, medicine and a community kitchen in the old carwash. It runs on volunteers and a small permanent crew, cooking around 1,000 meals a day for shelters and displaced families during the 2026 war, and in 2026 distributing about 20,000 food packages a week across Beirut's southern suburbs and Sidon. It also runs a micro-clinic, a women's centre, workshops and a farmers' market in Geitawi.
Its stated principle is empowerment rather than charity. Beyond crisis cooking it hosts aperitivo nights that give space to migrant and refugee community kitchens, with proceeds funding food distribution, and it aims to grow a network of self-sustaining community kitchens from Tripoli to southern Lebanon. After the August 2026 ceasefire it shifted from emergency response to sustained food distribution.