Zomi’s Kitchen: WCK opens new Field Kitchen in Gaza
Originally published June 18. Updated on June 27.
World Central Kitchen is now cooking out of a new kitchen in Gaza to keep scaling our efforts to support displaced Palestinians. Since serving our first meals eight months ago, we have established a network that will now include three high-capacity WCK field kitchens and 70 Palestinian-led community kitchens. The latest addition in Khan Younis is our fourth WCK Field Kitchen capable of cooking tens of thousands of meals daily.
“This kitchen is special because it will be nearly entirely women-run, women-operated,” said Dan, WCK’s response lead. Right now, it can be difficult for women to find work in Gaza that allows them to both support their families and help their fellow Palestinians. Zomi’s Kitchen will be a place where women can work together and provide tens of thousands of hot meals for families.
Being in the kitchen gives us pride because of the service we provide to people in such extremely difficult circumstances, where community members lack the basic necessities for cooking, such as gas, firewood, and clean, quality raw materials.
Amani
WCK staff member in Zomi’s Kitchen
My team and I at WCK work like a single family to give our utmost effort to feed the displaced.
Alaa
WCK staff member in Zomi’s Kitchen
Finding the appropriate space to build our large kitchens is a major challenge. Our teams are constantly adapting and innovating to create safe spaces to cook at scale. This latest kitchen was built at the site of a former waterpark. The flat poolside spaces where families watched their children playing in the water are now housing WCK’s pellet stoves that our Palestinian team will use to cook for people in the area.
Our local team has named the new kitchen after Zomi, one of our team members killed in the April 1 IDF attack on a WCK humanitarian convoy. This kitchen’s model of supporting and empowering women while also providing much-needed aid is a direct reflection of the ingenuity and thoughtfulness of our beloved Zomi. No matter where she was in the world, she found a way to help the greatest number of people in the most adaptable, intentional ways possible.
Zomi was killed along with six other members of our WCK family, but each and every one of their spirits lives on in the work that our Palestinian team and teams around the world do every day. Zomi’s Kitchen will join Damian’s Kitchen—named after another WCK family member killed on April 1—in operations, as well as our Deir al-Balah kitchen. Our initial kitchen in Rafah has been shut down since the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the southern city weeks ago, but the spirit of our WCK teams in Gaza has not been diminished, even in the face of harrowing challenges.
We received a video from our Maintenance and Construction Team on their way to work on Zomi’s Kitchen, and their energy and determination are palpable. In the names of Zomi, Damian, Saif, Jim, James, Jacob, and John, they are continuing to show up for their fellow Palestinians and provide hope, one plate of food at a time.
Help us continue cooking for Palestinians.
