Climate & Natural Disaster Fund
World Central Kitchen’s Climate & Natural Disaster Fund delivers emergency food relief when disaster strikes. Support rapid response efforts worldwide.
When disaster strikes, hunger doesn’t stop.
Across the globe, climate disaster relief needs are increasing as disaster become more frequent, intensity, and complexity. Floods, wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and extreme weather are no longer isolated events—they are accelerating realities.
World Central Kitchen is an emergency food relief organization that exists to meet this moment.
Founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, WCK is first to the frontlines, providing fresh meals to communities impacted by crisis. Applying our model of urgency, local partnership, and real-time adaptation, WCK has served more than 600 million nourishing meals worldwide—including more than 130 million meals in 2025 alone.
The Climate & Natural Disaster Fund ensures we can respond immediately—wherever and whenever disaster strikes.
The World We’re Responding To
Natural disasters are affecting more people, more often, and with greater intensity. Nine of the ten years with the highest number of billion-dollar disasters have occurred in the past decade.
Economic losses now exceed $2.3 trillion annually, considering indirect and ecosystem impacts.
But disasters do more than destroy infrastructure—they destabilize communities. Families lose shelter, income, access to clean water, schools, crops, and jobs. Entire local economies can be pushed back years.
Yet traditional disaster funding is often reactive, fragmented, and slow.
The Climate & Natural Disaster Fund changes that.
Why This Fund Matters
The Climate & Natural Disaster Fund provides flexible, ready-to-deploy resources that allow WCK to mobilize without waiting for event-specific fundraising.
It supports:
– Rapid response to climate-driven disasters and sudden natural hazards
– Immediate food relief during acute emergencies
– Continued support as communities transition from emergency response to early recovery
Because when communities are displaced, roads are flooded, power is out, and grocery stores are shuttered, the first question is simple: How will families eat today?
How We Respond
As an emergency food relief organization, WCK mobilizes with what we call the “urgency of now.” For forecasted disasters like hurricanes, we pre-position teams. For sudden events—earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions—we aim to serve our first meals within 24 to 48 hours. Our rapid disaster response teams are trained to deploy to any climate emergency within hours.
Once on the ground, we:
- Source ingredients locally whenever possible
- Mobilize local restaurants, food trucks, caterers, and build or operate Relief Kitchens to scale quickly
- Work alongside and employ local community members
- Use trucks, boats, helicopters, planes, and any other means available to reach isolated communities
This approach delivers fresh, culturally appropriate meals while supporting local economies at their most vulnerable moment.
We don’t parachute in. We partner, activate, and strengthen from within.
Built for a Changing Climate
Disasters are becoming more frequent and overlapping. Communities may face floods, then storms, then wildfires—often within the same year.
WCK is expanding regional capacity, strengthening infrastructure, and investing in people and systems so we can respond to multiple emergencies at once .
Preparedness is not optional. It is strategic.
The Climate & Natural Disaster Fund allows us to:
- Pre-position equipment and supplies
- Maintain trained response teams
- Sustain long-term regional partnerships
- Scale rapidly across multiple geographies
This is not short-term relief. It is response readiness.
Los Angeles Wildfires
WCK’s Relief Team is in Southern California to support first responders and families impacted by wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Our teams have mobilized across the region to provide immediate relief. We are working with restaurant and food truck partners to provide comforting meals.
Cyclone Chido
Chido was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte, the most densely populated and poorest French department, in 90 years. Many residents lost everything in the storm, including their homes. Our teams are cooking from our Field Kitchen. At the same time, we are working alongside dozens of restaurant partners and supporting community kitchens to ensure families impacted by the storm are receiving nourishing, comforting meals.
Hurricane Helene
WCK’s Relief Team is working in North Carolina to support families impacted by Hurricane Helene. Prepositioning ahead of the storm, we provided meals to families in Florida and Georgia immediately after it passed. Our team followed the storm’s path and is currently on the ground in North Carolina, having also supported families in Tenessee.
The Impact
Behind every statistic is a meal served, a community supported, and a moment of relief when it mattered most.
600 million+
meals served worldwide
200+
humanitarian and climate crises responded to
To meet the challenge of this moment, we need all hands on deck. Individuals, corporations, foundations—anyone can join our commitment. Contact us at donations@wck.org to learn more
WCK is building a community of monthly donors to help sustain our climate disaster work in the months and years to come. Any amount is a significant commitment to support communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
