Aarschot (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Sushi Pleintje in Aarschot has launched a fundraiser to support victims of the deadly August 2026 floods in Nepal, hoping to sell at least 100 benefit boxes as local businesses across Europe and beyond mobilize food-based charity drives in response to one of the region’s worst recent disasters.
What is the Sushi Pleintje fundraiser?
In the Flemish municipality of Aarschot, Sushi Pleintje has become part of the trend of such solidarity efforts being spearheaded by restaurants by organizing the sale of special boxes to raise funds for humanitarian aid to communities affected by flash floods and landslides in northern Nepal.
The initiative was highlighted in local coverage, which quoted the restaurant’s straightforward goal:
“We hope to sell at least 100 benefit boxes,”
a target that underscores both the ambition and the grassroots nature of the effort.
Why are Belgian restaurants supporting Nepal?
The catalysts for such activities were an overwhelming flood that occurred on 26 August 2026 due to the floodwater outburst in the Bhote Koshi River within Rasuwa District. The outburst led to destructive flooding in the Trishuli Corridor area in Nepal and Tibet. The number of casualties in Nepal is said to be over hundreds and missing people at least 900, while on the other hand in China there are hundreds missing.
For members of the diaspora living in Europe, the impact on humanity is a very real one. The organizers of the other benefit dinner, which took place at the restaurant Shokudo in Aarschot, had a very clear message to share about their reasons for organizing such an event: “Our families and friends are from those regions; we can’t just stand and look.” This rings true for the entire Nepalese diaspora community in Belgium, who have organized numerous food-centric fundraising events following natural disasters.
How does this fit into broader relief efforts?
Sushi Pleintje’s fundraising drive is just another example of restaurant and food industry-related fundraising efforts which have become a trend across the world from late August onwards. In Carlisle, UK, Gurkha Spicy pledged that all the money earned during the coming week will go towards Nepal’s Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund, and at a Nepalese restaurant in Cornwall, customers were being told to “pay for two curries, get one,” where the extra money collected was intended to help the flood relief efforts. In Lisbon, four restaurants owned by Nepalese chef Tanka Sapkota conducted dinners for benefit raising somewhere between €17,000 to €25,000.
When have similar restaurant fundraisers happened before?
The food drives that have been used to assist people from Nepal in Europe are not new. After the earthquake that occurred in Nepal in 2015 and caused about 9,000 deaths, Nepalese communities in Europe initiated various charity events such as concerts, nights with culture, and restaurant dinners to raise funds for rebuilding. Other natural calamities such as monsoon, especially the one experienced in the Melamchi valley in 2021, saw such projects repeated on a small scale.
Organizers in Belgium explicitly frame their current efforts within this lineage. As one Shokudo team member put it:
“After the earthquake, many people here helped Nepal; now it’s our turn to give something back from this side.”
Sushi Pleintje’s benefit boxes can be read as the latest iteration of that cycle: a simple, tangible mechanism—selling food—to convert local solidarity into concrete assistance for distant but deeply connected communities.
