50 million meals served in Gaza
In the nearly eight months since World Central Kitchen served our first plates of food in Gaza, our teams have provided more than 50 million meals by land, air, and sea to Palestinian families in need. We have established three field kitchens, built a network of more than 70 community kitchens, opened a maritime aid corridor, and participated in air drops. By working shoulder to shoulder with impacted communities, we have overcome challenges and are ensuring meals get to people in desperate need of support.
The Palestinians working in our Field Kitchens cook tens of thousands of meals daily for families sheltering in makeshift camps and for patients and staff at a dozen medical facilities across Gaza. Up until late May, we were operating field kitchens in Rafah, Deir al-Balah, and Al-Mawasi. On May 21 our Rafah Field Kitchen was forced to pause work due to evacuation orders by the Israeli military. Prior to pausing operations due to the mandatory evacuation, our Rafah kitchen was producing up to 50,000 meals daily. “We come early in the morning with all seriousness and energy,” said Ramadan, one of the Palestinian chefs who was working in our Rafah kitchen. “Our goal is to alleviate the burden of the displaced and lift them toward better days.”
Ramadan was one of the workers in the WCK Relief Kitchen in Rafah.
The two remaining field kitchens in Deir al-Balah and Al-Mawasi—are scaling up their meal counts to meet the need. The one in Al-Mawasi is affectionately known as Damian’s kitchen, named after one of our seven heroes killed on April 1. We are also preparing to build another Field Kitchen in central Gaza—already being called Zomi’s Kitchen, after another incredible hero we lost on April 1.
Our ability to cook at scale relies on a steady influx of humanitarian aid trucks from our warehouse in Cairo, Egypt. Whenever Israeli forces restrict or shut off access to aid it curtails the capacity of all humanitarian organizations working in Gaza, including WCK. Recently, 150 of our trucks were stranded at the border unable to enter Gaza. Our trucks carry ingredients, ready-to-eat meals, kitchen equipment, and the wood pellets our innovative stoves use for fuel.
After weeks of highly limited aid access, our trucks are again able to regularly cross into Gaza. Nearly 100 hundred WCK trucks were able to reach our Gaza team last week. “We are using close to ten tons of these pellets per day for our kitchen burners, so this resupply was crucial,” said John, WCK’s response lead for Gaza, who is on the ground in Cairo. “For reference, ten tons is equal to half of a flatbed truck, which is a tremendous amount of work to move from Cairo to our Gaza kitchens on a daily basis.”
While supplies are again reaching our kitchens, the amount of trucks being let into Gaza are not enough to meet the needs of communities devastated by the war. We are opening an additional supply route from Jordan so as many trucks as possible can reach our network of kitchens.
Most of the meals WCK provides are cooked by Palestinian team members at our network of community kitchens. We provide them with ingredients and equipment that allows them to cook and distribute meals to families in their areas. One of the chefs in a community kitchen in Rafah told our teams: “No matter how difficult this is, we will continue to help the displaced of this region by providing food to them in order to relieve the pain of war.”
Our network of community kitchens has grown to more than 70. However, as attacks in Rafah escalated, many kitchens inside evacuation zones were forced to pause. WCK has set up a tent site to house our workers who were displaced from our Rafah kitchen and community kitchens. Every day, more and more of our team members are forced to move there with their families. Still, 65 of our community kitchens are able to operate. Staff at these kitchens cook day in and day out, ensuring that the people who rely on our meals will get them. There is no area in Gaza that is safe, and the Palestinians cooking in our kitchens know that. Yet they continue to show up for one another, creating nourishing meals for people in need.
Mohammed worked in one of WCK’s community kitchens in Rafah until it was forced to shut down. He was able to repurpose equipment from the evacuated space to set up a mobile kitchen in areas that have been destroyed. He now cooks enough meals for 400 displaced people every day, and he is planning to grow that number. Mohammed hopes that other Palestinians will see his work and become inspired to create their own mobile kitchens to feed even more families.
Mohammed set up a mobile community kitchen to continue feeding 400 people per day.
Alongside the incredible Palestinians working with us, another welcome change has been the renewed availability of fresh produce—something that has been in short supply for many months. Our teams have been able to procure fresh produce from the West Bank and transport it to our kitchens in Gaza, allowing ingredients like garlic, onions, and potatoes to be used in our hot meals once again. Even some setbacks have turned into opportunities: “We were able to donate a truck of potatoes that had started to sprout due to delays at the border to a local farmer,” said John. “He will be able to plant these for a future harvest.”
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