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Not-for-profit NGO providing disaster food aid From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that provides food relief. It was founded in 2010 by Spanish American chef and restaurateur José Andrés following the earthquake in Haiti,[1][2] and has subsequently responded to Hurricane Harvey, the 2018 lower Puna eruption, 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, and the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
 | This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (May 2024) |
| |
| Abbreviation | WCK |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2010 |
| Founder | José Andrés |
| Type | Not-for-profit non-governmental organization |
| Purpose | Food security |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | wck |
The organization has suffered casualties in areas of armed conflict, including one volunteer in Kharkiv in 2023 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[3] and ten aid workers during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, seven in the April 2024 aid convoy attack[4] and three in November 2024.[5]
The NGO has contributed to the provision of meals in Australia, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, Ukraine, the United States, Turkey, Syria, and Palestine.[6][7][8][9][10][11] It has also operated culinary training programs in Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia and Peru.[12][13]
Haiti – Following the 2010 earthquake, WCK established local kitchens and began distributing food.[14] They returned to Haiti in the ensuing years, helping set up a culinary school in 2015.[15]
United States – WCK coordinated efforts with the American Red Cross and working in Houston, Texas, following Hurricane Harvey.[16]
Puerto Rico – WCK led some of the disaster relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria, organizing a grass-roots movement of chefs and volunteers to establish communications, food supplies, and other resources and started serving meals. The group's efforts to provide assistance encountered obstacles from FEMA and government bureaucrats, but as Andrés said, "we just started cooking."[17][18] WCK served more than two million meals in the first month after the hurricane.[19][20][21] It received two short term FEMA contracts and served more meals than the Salvation Army or the Red Cross, but its application for longer-term support was denied.[8][19] WCK developed resiliency centers on the island, and installed a hydropanel array at a greenhouse in San Juan to provide safe drinking water.[22] United States – WCK operated in Southern California in Ventura County during the December 2017 Thomas Fire to assist firefighters and first responders and provided food to families affected by the fires.[23] United States – WCK set up a kitchen to serve the Hawaiian communities affected by the 2018 lower Puna eruption.[1] United States – WCK worked in South Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.[24] United States – WCK and Andrés teamed up with chefs Guy Fieri, and Tyler Florence, and local Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to bring Thanksgiving dinner to 15,000 Camp Fire survivors in Butte County, California.[25][26]
Bahamas – WCK and Andrés opened kitchens in The Bahamas to feed people in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.[27] United States – WCK helped in Sonoma County, California, working with local chefs such as Guy Fieri, during the Kincade Fire.[28]
Australia – During the 2019–2020 bushfire season, WCK deployed in January to rural locations in New South Wales. Meals were delivered to firefighters and residents.[29] A food voucher program reimbursing restaurants for meals was trialled by WCK in Mallacoota, Victoria.[30][31] United States – The Grand Princess cruise ship was under quarantine near San Francisco due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[32] WCK in collaboration with Bon Appetit Management Company (a division of Compass Group), fed thousands of stranded passengers for approximately a week while logistics were being figured out.[32] Over 50,000 meals were served during this crisis.[32]
Turkey, 
Syria – WCK set up mobile kitchens throughout Turkey and Syria following the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.[9] United States – WCK set up a short-term kitchen in Montpelier, Vermont following the Great Vermont Flood, providing meals to clean-up volunteers and displaced residents.[33][34] United States – WCK set up kitchens in Maui in relief of those in Lahaina and West Maui who lost family members, businesses and homes.[35] They provided 6000-6300 meals per day with the help of volunteers.[citation needed]In late February 2022, Andrés and World Central Kitchen responded to multiple locations, including in border areas and in conflict zones such as hard-hit Kharkiv, Ukraine, to distribute meals during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[42] By March 2, 2022, WCK had opened eight kitchens on the Poland–Ukraine border.[43]
A local volunteer was killed in 2023 by a Russian missile strike on his apartment in Kharkiv.[3]
In response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis, World Central Kitchen has been contributing to food deliveries to the Gaza Strip. As of March 2024, it has provided more than 32 million meals.[44]
World Central Kitchen has supplied food to airdrop operations by foreign states,[10] as well as to the NGO Proactiva Open Arms performing maritime deliveries.
On 2 April, WCK announced a pause to operations after Israeli airstrikes killed seven employees (see § Casualties).[4][45][46]
In February 2024, Proactiva Open Arms announced that their Open Arms tugboat would conduct delivery to the Gaza Strip towing a barge of food and water provided by World Central Kitchen. The ship had been reportedly stationed in Cyprus since 16 February. [47][48]
The president of Cyprus had proposed a maritime humanitarian corridor at a conference in Paris in early November,[49] and held conversations the following month with the Egyptian president and Jordanian king. According to Cypriot authorities, there were also "technical discussions" with Israeli officials.[50] In an interview with Tel Aviv Radio, the Israeli foreign minister said in December that "It can start immediately".[51]
On 11 March, the ship was in Cyprus awaiting departure, after Cypriot authorities claimed that permission had been granted. The goods had reportedly been checked by Cypriot officials with Israeli oversight.[52][53] It contained "nearly 200 tons of food".[54]
The shipment arrived on 15 March at a beach south of Gaza City.[55] According to WCK, this was the first boat to reach Gaza in nearly two decades.[56]
On 25 July, 2022, a Russian missile attack on a Chuihuiv community center killed two WCK volunteers. Sardor Hakimov, a 36-year-old Uzbek migrant to Ukraine, and another volunteer, only identified as Viktoria, were the victims.[63][64] On 2 June 2023, a WCK volunteer in Kharkiv, a 60-year-old Ukrainian man identified as Igor, was killed as the result of a Russian missile strike on his apartment.[3] On 10 July, four Ukrainian WCK volunteers identified as Tatyana, Iryna, Olga, and Vitaliy were killed in a Russian missile strike on a community center in Orikhiv.[65]
On 1 April 2024, seven WCK employees – six people with foreign citizenship and a Palestinian driver – were killed in Deir al-Balah by a series of Israeli airstrikes.[4][66] After the incident, WCK announced an immediate pause to operations in Gaza.[4] The casualties included:
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