The WCK Way in 2024

In 2024, WCK supported families impacted by conflict, hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, and other natural disasters in 20 countries, providing over 109 million meals. As of December, our teams are working on the ground in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Mayotte, Egypt, Spain, and North Carolina. Working alongside partners and volunteers, we are cooking and delivering nourishing meals for anyone in need.

109+ million meals served - The WCK Way in 2024

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In Gaza, where we have been cooking since October 2023, our Relief Team has worked tirelessly to serve meals to families on the brink of starvation. In a matter of weeks, we will mark three years of work in Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. As attacks escalate and the frontline shifts, we are constantly adapting to ensure Ukrainians receive the support they need, when they need it. At the same time, we are witnessing the worsening impacts of the climate crisis. We work to respond rapidly to hurricanes and wildfires, even as they increase in intensity and frequency. 

Everywhere we go, we witness the best of humanity. In the darkest moments imaginable, neighbors show up to support each other and join our efforts to serve food and offer hope to families in need—one plate of food at a time.

Overcoming challenges is core to how our Relief Team operates. In the Middle East, we have developed innovative approaches to meet the immense need created by conflict. Our teams in the region have reached people in need of life-sustaining meals by land, sea, and air—including building a jetty to allow for the first maritime aid shipment to reach Gaza by sea in two decades. We have supported families in Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt, and Israel by using every possible tool at our disposal. In Gaza, teams faced a widespread shortage of propane and other forms of fuel for cooking.  Working with local engineers and chefs, we designed and launched pellet-based stoves that could work around these constraints. Now, our Field Kitchens and Community Kitchens can use these stoves to cook for Palestinians in need without fuel.

In March, we delivered almost 200 tons of desperately needed food in northern Gaza that arrived on our first maritime aid shipment to the region.

How WCK sent food by sea to Gaza

How WCK sent desperately needed food by sea to Gaza

The 2024 hurricane season was even more intense than previous years, with elevated sea temperatures fueling stronger storms. Communities in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico were hit hard, and WCK responded to six hurricanes across seven countries. After Hurricane Beryl—the earliest recorded Category 5 storm in history—access to food in both the Caribbean and Texas was severely limited due to flooding and infrastructure damage.

Our response was especially challenging in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the most impacted communities were spread across a series of small islands. To reach families in need, we created a distribution network using helicopters, small airplanes, and boats, which allowed us to quickly transport meals and potable water from island to island.

This all-means-available approach to meal delivery defines our work, whether we are using horses to carry food to mountaintop towns in Haiti or kayaks to reach flooded homes in Florida.

In 2010, Chef José Andrés traveled to Haiti after a devastating earthquake, determined to help. While cooking with displaced families, he learned to prepare black beans the Haitian way—mashed and sieved into a creamy sauce. For José, it wasn’t just about providing food but about listening, learning, and cooking alongside locals. This approach to food aid became the foundation of WCK. 

2024 was no different. Chef Corps member Travis Milton has always cherished his Appalachian roots. When he joined our Field Kitchen inside Bear’s BBQ Smokehouse in Asheville, NC, he helped prepare thousands of meals. “Food, to me, is the absolute purest expression of love,” he said. “Thankfully I get the opportunity to communicate through cooking… I realized not too long ago that feeding people is my love language.”

In Lebanon, we partnered with local restaurateurs like WCK Chef Corps member Aline Kamakian, who joined WCK in 2020 after a major explosion at the port of Beirut destroyed her restaurant while she was inside. Chef Aline has been at the heart of our efforts in Lebanon. She and our restaurant partners prepared meals including lamb and yogurt, providing more than 5.4 million meals since our current response began. Since October 2023, we have served more than 92 million meals across the Middle East.

Partnering with local organizations and impacted communities helps ensure WCK meals reach all pockets of need. Early this year, Haiti entered a period of political and social unrest that led to increased gang violence and food insecurity, particularly in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Our partnership with Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS), a Haitian NGO led by our board member, Jean Marc deMatteis, helped us provide over 750,000 meals in the form of food kits and warm meals across the country. With our friends at HAS, we built 12 community kitchens, run entirely by locals, and distributed thousands of meals daily. We sourced produce from local farms and paid women in the community to cook and distribute meals to urban and rural populations alike. 

In our 2024 responses, we leveraged our learnings to move faster and more effectively. After our response to Hurricane Otis in 2023, we could move quicker than ever when Hurricane John impacted the same area in 2024, arriving immediately in Guerrero on Mexico’s west coast. With our existing relationships with local chefs and volunteers, we constructed our Acapulco-based Field Kitchen in about 72 hours. Our team scaled up that kitchen to cook almost 413,000 meals for local residents and to serve as a hub for our operations. 

We also channeled hands-on learning to grow our fleet and develop equipment suited for post-disaster conditions. We deployed our state-of-the-art Rapid Response Field Kitchen in response to Hurricane Debby in Tallahassee, Florida, using it to build a Field Kitchen on the go. The vehicle and others like it will serve as  “food ambulances,” allowing WCK and partners to access rural or hard-to-reach areas and start cooking right away.

Rapid Response Field Kitchen in Action

State-of-the-art mobile kitchen deployed to Florida after Hurricane Debby

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In Ukraine, our long-term relationships with the community have helped us go even further to channel food as a vehicle for joy. In our Easter and summer camp celebrations in Ukraine, we provided ingredients for borsch and a bean soup for a Children’s Day camp in Zaporizhzhia, helping bring games and fun to over 100 children. We also distributed balloons and toys. "War doesn't cancel childhood,” said Olha, WCK’s Ukraine Lead. “All our children are, in some way, affected by the war. That’s why summer camps are such powerful places for healing, where kids and teens can reclaim their childhood. WCK is happy to support this initiative by providing food, just as we do for Ukrainians every day." 

As we work to bring joy to Ukrainian families living under unimaginable hardship, our efforts remain forward-thinking. Our Seeds of Hope program empowers families who are able to grow their own food, reducing reliance on aid. Additionally, we have opened a community kitchen where neighbors can come together to cook for one another.

Beyond addressing immediate hunger, we are helping rebuild a sense of community for people affected by the ongoing conflict. By focusing on sustainable solutions like localized food production and communal resources, we aim to ensure that Ukrainians have the tools and resilience to move forward despite the challenges they face.

In our 25 responses across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa this year, WCK honed in on the resilience of local communities, the importance of adapting, and the power of a nourishing meal to bring hope in times of crisis. 

This year, the entire WCK family mourned the losses of our colleagues killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes. Our locally-led teams on the ground maintain their resolve, eager to honor the legacy of our friends and colleagues by spreading hope, one nourishing plate of food at a time as safely as possible. We honor their contributions to the world they made brighter and to the mission of WCK to nourish people in their hardest moments. 

Humanitarian workers and civilians should never be a target.

First Alert: WCK Relief Team en route to Mayotte after Cyclone Chido