WCK in 2025
Explore WCK’s work in 2025.
A Message from José Andrés
Dear friends,
Every year, I am reminded of something powerful: community is always stronger than crisis. At World Central Kitchen, I have seen again and again that in the worst moments, the best of humanity shows up.
That’s the meaning of community: the very people impacted by disaster are the ones who support each other.
In 2025, our WCK Relief Team moved faster than ever. Following the lead of locals, we served more than 130 million meals in thousands of communities worldwide.
In Gaza, when borders closed and famine loomed, our Palestinian team never stopped. They built water systems, stored food, doubled staff—ready for the moment hope could return. Palestinians feeding Palestinians.
In Ukraine, community kitchens and chickens helped communities regain dignity and self-reliance. Ukrainians feeding Ukrainians.
And in Haiti, teams we’ve worked with for years stepped forward once more, at the very moment their neighbors needed them. Haitians feeding Haitians.
At WCK, we don’t see leaders as the people who speak loudest. Instead, we look for the people who listen the closest.
In Asheville, North Carolina, when Hurricane Helene shattered the water system, plumbers, restaurant teams, and neighbors showed us how to reconnect families to clean water. In Los Angeles, as wildfires raged, food truck owners and farmers united to nourish the firefighters protecting their homes. In Hunt, Texas, families helped families through the floods.
This is the power of community. Local knowledge. Local heart. Local hands.
Thank you to our entire WCK community for making this work possible, meal by meal, crisis by crisis, year after year.
With gratitude,
José Andrés
WCK Founder
See WCK’s Work in 2025
Our Impact in 2025
130 million+
Meals Served
9 million+
Gallons of Water Provided
900 partners
Supporting Our Work
23+ countries
Thousands of Communities Supported by Our Relief Team
Urgency of Now
For WCK, reaching communities fast isn’t optional—it’s essential. When crisis strikes, every hour matters, and acting with the urgency of now means getting hot meals to people while the need is immediate. By moving quickly and working alongside local partners, WCK helps provide comfort, dignity, and stability at the moment it’s needed most.
Explore the globe to see where WCK delivered meals and support this year.
Click the map pins below to learn more about each response this year.
Stories of Strength
In every response this year, WCK’s work was powered by the strength and dedication of local community members—people who, in many cases, were facing the very same disasters they stepped up to help their neighbors through. From farmers and restaurant owners to volunteers and community cooks, these partners made it possible to reach families quickly and with care. By sourcing ingredients locally and investing in neighborhood businesses, we not only provided meals in moments of crisis but also helped support local economies on the road to recovery.
There are thousands of stories that show this community strength, below are just a few.
Local Hands, Lasting Impact in California
This year’s wildfire response has been powered by Californians supporting Californians. From the moment the blazes began, neighbors stepped up to care for neighbors—volunteering, sharing resources, and showing up for one another in moments of uncertainty. That community spirit was felt immediately as local Chef Corps members got to work, cooking for families in need.
Many of the chefs we partner with—including Chef Corps member Daniel Shemtob—have been directly impacted by the fires themselves, giving them a deep, personal understanding of what their neighbors are facing. Even under the most challenging circumstances, their empathy and commitment shine through in every meal. Watch the video below to hear Daniel’s story.
Nearly a year after the blazes first struck, that same spirit of Californians supporting one another remains strong. WCK teams are still on the ground, shifting our focus from immediate response to long-term recovery—supporting rebuilding efforts and helping communities regain stability. Through initiatives like our commissary kitchen, local food businesses are able to restart operations, restore livelihoods, and serve their neighbors. By investing in local solutions and local leadership, this work helps ensure communities can move forward together, stronger than before.
After the Eaton Fire damaged Brisa’s kitchen space, WCK connected with her to help get Tacos Casa up and running again. With access to our commissary kitchen, Brisa and her team are back to bringing delicious Mexican food like sopes, burritos, and tacos to their community.
What I’m trying to do is work…extend my support to the community.
Brisa Lopez
Owner of Tacos Casa
Care Amid Displacement in Gaza
Across Gaza, WCK staff and families impacted by the crisis show extraordinary strength every day—cooking, distributing meals, and caring for their neighbors while enduring the same hardships themselves. Their resilience and generosity are at the heart of our response. In October, when hundreds of thousands of people in North Gaza were forced to evacuate, Belal—a WCK team member—was among them. His experience reflects the reality of countless families navigating displacement and loss while still seeking moments of peace and hope.
Ataf, a widow and mother of two from Khan Younis, was displaced to Mawasi after her home was destroyed. She and her children rely on WCK meals as their main source of food. Despite the hardship of living in a tent in a displacement camp through the heat of summer and the cold of winter, Ataf holds onto hope.
Muhammad, 28, is a nursing graduate in Gaza who has been unable to find work during the crisis. Still, he does what he can in the camp where he shelters—offering basic medical consultations to anyone who needs care. Nursing, he says, is part of his identity and a way of serving humanity.
Displaced from Al-Shuja’iya to Gaza City, Um Bassam and her children faced winter in a tent—cold, rain, and uncertainty. Now, with daily hot meals from WCK’s Relief Kitchen, she’s able to keep her family nourished and warm.
Enduring Support For Ukrainians, by Ukrainians
This year, Russian attacks across Ukraine intensified, bringing renewed airstrikes, displacement, and hardship to communities already living with the realities of war. In the face of this escalation, Ukrainians themselves have stepped forward—local cooks, volunteers, and neighbors supporting one another during moments of greatest need. From shared meals to new foodways, this community-led response remains a powerful source of hope.
Across Ukraine, WCK’s Ukrainian teams are constantly adapting to reach communities hit by Russian strikes as quickly as possible—adjusting routes, kitchens, and distribution plans as conditions change. Beyond providing nourishment, they bring something just as vital: human connection.
In moments of shock and loss, our team members like Daria offer reassurance, compassion, and a steady presence, providing emotional support to countless families as they navigate the aftermath together.
We are ready to do so much more — one million hot meals a day.
Daria
WCK Team Member
Yana is one of countless beacons of hope we’ve met in Ukraine. Our teams first met her when she was just 12 years old, shortly after she and her mother were forced to evacuate their home in 2022. Wanting to support her new community, Yana volunteered with our distribution teams and helped set up a refugee shelter.
Years later, when WCK delivered food and vegetable kits to a shelter in Ternivka, Ukraine, our team was reunited with her. Like her passion for photography, Yana’s desire to help others has only grown stronger over the past three years.
Jamaicans Lead From Kitchens to Hillsides
When Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica, Jamaicans immediately stepped up to support one another. Local cooks, volunteers, and community partners joined WCK efforts from the very first days—helping prepare and deliver meals to families navigating damage, power outages, and displacement. Thanks to their leadership and deep knowledge of their communities, our teams have been able to reach families in the hardest-hit and hardest-to-reach regions, ensuring support gets where it’s needed most.
To reach some of the hardest-hit areas—many inaccessible by road—WCK teams relied on helicopters to bridge the gap, conducting hundreds of air deliveries of meals. Once on the ground, those meals were handed out with the support of impacted communities themselves, ensuring food reached families quickly and safely. This combination of air support and local leadership made it possible to reach people where help was otherwise difficult to access.
WCK is working with dozens of restaurant partners in Jamaica who exemplify the spirit of community that defines our work. Nathalee, the owner of Kajay’s Seafood Restaurant in New Hope, Westmoreland Parish, transformed her restaurant into a relief hub after Hurricane Melissa. Working with WCK soon after the storm, she was unable to cook due to damage to the restaurant, but instead led the daily distribution of hundreds of hot meals supplied by our Montego Bay Field Kitchen and partners—ensuring families in one of the hardest-hit areas received support as they rebuilt. Now that her kitchen is operational again, Nathalee is back to cooking for her community while keeping her team employed, turning Kajay into a place of both comfort and recovery.
Haitian Women Nourish Their Communities
Women are leading WCK community kitchens in Haitian neighborhoods impacted by ongoing violence—stepping forward to care for their communities when it’s needed most. These local leaders know the foods their neighbors find comforting and familiar, preparing meals rooted in tradition and culture that offer more than nourishment. In moments of instability, their knowledge, strength, and leadership help ensure families can rely on something deeply grounding: a meal that tastes like home.
In Haiti, we have a proverb that goes ‘fanm se poto mitan’ which translates to ‘Women are the pillars of our society.’
Jessica Laguerre, COO at Hospital Albert Schweitzer, WCK’s partner in Haiti
These cooks—mothers, sisters, and neighbors—are serving nourishing meals to people in need. Their work provides comfort, restores dignity, and fosters resilience in communities facing ongoing violence. The women of Haiti taught WCK founder José Andrés so much about how to feed communities in crisis and create food aid that truly works. Today, WCK teams are supporting their leadership—ensuring they have the tools and resources they need to keep cooking for their neighbors.
Innovation in 2025
At WCK, innovation isn’t a buzzword—it’s the engine that drives our work. As disasters grow more frequent and complex, constant adaptation is the only way to ensure meals reach families in need. Whether facing conflict, hurricanes, wildfires, or climate-driven disruptions, our teams are always learning, evolving, and building new ways to show up faster, smarter, and more effectively.
In 2025, this spirit of relentless problem-solving shaped every corner of our global response. From mobile bakeries in Gaza to Chickens in Ukraine, here are five ways WCK teams pushed the boundaries of what’s possible—transforming challenges into new opportunities to nourish communities.
15 Years of Impact: A Mission Born in Haiti
WCK has developed a distinctive, community-first approach to food aid. Our model, rooted in our Haiti origins, provides nourishing meals immediately after disaster strikes while simultaneously supporting local economies. Since 2010, we have served more than 500 million meals worldwide.
Thank You For Making Our Work Possible
None of this work would be possible without WCK’s global community. Your generosity, trust, and belief in the power of food to bring comfort and hope help us reach communities around the world during their hardest moments. As we close out the year, thank you for standing with our teams, partners, and the people we serve.
Now through the end of the year, will be matched—up to $1 million for our global work and $2 million for Gaza. Every dollar goes twice as far.