Five Ways World Central Kitchen is Prepared for Hurricane Season
In the immediate hours after a hurricane rocks a community, you want to know that help is on the way. That you are not alone, and neither are your neighbors. It might be dark. Flood waters might be rising. The last thing you should have to think about is when you might have a meal. We know that a plate of food is a plate of hope.
June 1 marks the official start of the 2025 hurricane season, which now stretches to the end of November. Climate patterns are growing increasingly unpredictable. That means communities across coastal and inland regions of the Atlantic basin and Pacific coast are bracing for ‘above normal’ storm activity.
World Central Kitchen will be there. Ever since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, WCK has been responding to strong storms that are intensifying in frequency and ferocity. For us, each response is an opportunity to learn and grow. This season, we are channeling those learnings to be prepared to support communities in the aftermath. Learn how:
Fleet and Greet: Ready to Cook
This year, World Central Kitchen rolled out a fleet of new vehicles that allow us to respond rapidly after crises. While they all play a role, the newest edition raises the bar. Our Rapid Response Mobile Kitchen comes with equipment for high-volume cooking: twin ovens, tilt skillets, and a steam kettle. Our Relief Team is able to prepare up to 20,000 meals daily from this 43-foot-long truck. To manage uncertainty after disasters, it can be powered by solar energy, electricity, or propane-fueled generators. Our latest test cooking ensures we’ll be ready the moment we’re needed. Read more about WCK’s full fleet.
Chefs on Standby
There are almost 500 Chef Corps members ready to help WCK get cooking as quickly as possible when we need to respond in their region. Chefs are some of the most trusted and connected people in their communities. That’s why this global network of culinary leaders is so well equipped to bring communities together during the early stages of a response. Every emergency is different, making chefs’ adaptable skill sets an asset. Chef Corps members have helped us secure a Relief Kitchen, identified the best food trucks in town, recruited volunteers, connected with local suppliers, and even rolled up their sleeves and cooked alongside our Relief Team.
WCK has Chef Corps members at the ready in hurricane-prone locations in the US, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and the US Virgin Islands, as well as in communities around the world, like the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico. Read more about the Chef Corps.
Chef Corps member Katie Button from Asheville, North Carolina
Pre-Positioning Supplies
Our WCK Supply Chain teams also get ahead of hurricanes by pre-positioning key supplies. One example is by sending two 20-foot refrigerated containers loaded with cooking equipment, packaging materials, and technology tools, to Puerto Rico—a central Caribbean location. If needed, the ground team can offload the kit and replace the equipment with fresh ingredients secured from local producers, ready to be turned into nutritious meals. These refrigerated containers can also run on generators, should electricity and other utilities not be operational. WCK supply and culinary teams, working together, hope to replicate this pilot program in other locations where we respond regularly.
Channeling Learnings
Every WCK response is a chance to sharpen our skills, move faster, test new approaches, and train more people so that we can show up the next time even stronger. This is especially true when disaster strikes twice. Some communities are especially vulnerable to natural disasters, and when WCK must return to a region, the knowledge we bring when coming back helps us move even faster.
WCK’s past efforts in Acapulco informed our work in response to Hurricane John in 2024. The connections and friends we made in the wake of Hurricane Otis in 2023 positioned our teams to begin serving communities in need immediately.
“The drivers and volunteers learned last year to work with dignity, to keep things very clean, and most importantly, to work with love and a big smile while delivering the meals,” said Ale, our Hurricane John Distribution Coordinator who helped reach communities when the hurricane cleared Mexico’s rugged Pacific Coast. Read more.
Global Impact
WCK has also been building its capacity and readiness to respond internationally, growing and training new staff and Response Corps members who are prepared to deploy to emergencies in an instant. Each team member brings new perspectives, language skills, and cultural knowledge to the table, enabling us to serve local communities with respect. We expect to continue to grow. View our career opportunities here or sign up to join our Volunteer Corps to be notified when there are opportunities in your area.
Help us support families impacted by this hurricane season
