WCK’s first mobile bread truck starts operating in Gaza after close collaboration with Jordan
Updated January 22, 2025.
World Central Kitchen’s team in Gaza is now cooking from our first-ever mobile bakery. The high-capacity, automated machine on wheels is capable of producing up to 3,000 pitas an hour—a lifeline for displaced Palestinian families in need of nourishment. The act of sharing bread in many cultures in the region symbolizes hospitality, community, and even life itself. We have served nearly 90 million meals in Gaza and these pitas will accompany the nourishing plates of food prepared by our local chefs.
The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, donated the mobile bakery to WCK with the support of other members of the Jordanian royal family and the Jordanian Armed Forces. It crossed the Sheikh Hussein Bridge at the end of December after diligent collaboration and configuration.
“It took more than three months of coordination to get the truck inside Gaza,” said WCK’s Jordanian Relations Coordinator Marwa. “The Jordanian government and WCK team were all keen to make this happen. Everyone is excited to see it operational.”
Food trucks have long been a critical and reliable component of WCK responses because they can be dispatched to where the need for meals is the greatest with minimal utilities and manpower required.
The mobile bakery in Gaza is no different. It runs on a generator and only needs two people to operate the automated machinery and the simplest of ingredients—flour, yeast, salt, and water—to make the bread. The dough is mixed, divided, and proofed for a first fermentation. Next it goes into a dough flattener, through another round of proofing, and finally into the oven. The perfectly browned and fluffy pitas will accompany hot meals produced nearby creating a complete, comforting meal.
This is not the first time WCK innovated to bake bread in Gaza. Early in our response, we developed wood-pellet-fired stoves for our kitchens. Fuel scarcity and aid restrictions make wood-pellets the most viable fuel source for cooking. Our teams adapted these stoves to prepare saj, a typical flatbread of the region.
WCK looks forward to future collaboration with Jordan that will help us meet as much need as possible in Gaza.
Help us keep cooking for displaced Palestinians.
