World Central Kitchen, the NGO attacked by Israel that was born after the Haiti earthquake

World Central Kitchen (WCK), the humanitarian project of José Ramón Andrés Puerta (Mieres, 54 years old), better known as chef José Andrés, was born from a conversation between this naturalized American Spanish chef and his wife, Patricia: “When people have hungry, send them cooks. Not tomorrow, today.” This seemingly simple idea on which the NGO was built arose between stoves in camps for displaced people after the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. However, this project did not initially plan to feed the hungry of wars, but rather the victims of natural disasters like that earthquake. The conflict in Ukraine expanded that initial purpose. José Andrés and his cooks began serving meals under the bombs, but none of his workers had ever perished in an armed conflict. Until this Monday, when an Israeli attack killed seven of his collaborators in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, where WCK manages 60 portable kitchens in the center and south of the Palestinian enclave. On March 15, the organization had become the first (with the NGO ship Open Arms) to bring food to the Strip by sea from Cyprus.

After that first experience in Haiti, the chef deepened his philanthropic profile that even led him to convert six of his restaurants in the United States into community kitchens. In its more than 13 years of existence, WCK has served hundreds of millions of meals in 30 countries, not all of them in the global south. The organization has assisted flood victims in Kentucky (USA) and Australia; provided more than 30,000 meals to rescue crews and firefighters fighting to extinguish the California coastal fires; to those affected by Hurricane María in Puerto Rico and those of the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey, Syria and Morocco. Also to immigrants on the border between Mexico and the United States.

The covid-19 pandemic was another of the emergency situations in which the NGO became involved. In the United States, it partnered with restaurants and farmers across the country to “fight food insecurity.” In Spain, it mobilized dozens of volunteers led by chefs to prepare and distribute millions of meals in 16 cities in the country. One of the most important supports that the organization has received was the donation of 100 million dollars (93 million euros) from tycoon Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, to establish in 2021 a fund to help victims of catastrophes and investment against climate change worth 1 billion dollars (930 million euros). “Giving food is not charity or alms, but rather giving dignity and respect to your neighbor,” said the cook in an interview with EL PAÍS. In 2022, World Central Kitchen had revenue, mainly from donations, of about $500 million (about €464 million), according to Bloomberg.

The organization expanded its initial purpose in February 2022, just after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, when, hours after the start of the Kremlin's aggression, it began distributing menus to refugees from that war at a pedestrian border crossing. in southern Poland On May 6, 2022, WCK delivered 24 tons of food to the southern port of Odessa on board the ship Open Arms, from the Spanish NGO of the same name. Two years later, the NGO has served 260 million meals in Ukraine, including in Odessa, one of the cities hardest hit by Russia. WCK already suffered the consequences of working in an armed conflict when a Russian missile hit one of its kitchens in Kharkiv and injured four of its employees.

With Open Arms, traditionally dedicated to rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, chef José Andrés launched a second mission for Gaza, in March 2024, following the maritime humanitarian corridor model that he had already used successfully in Ukraine, in this occasion, this time from Cyprus to the coasts of the Strip. Operation Safeena (boat in Arabic) culminated on March 15 with a first delivery of 200 tons of food that was distributed to the NGO's 60 kitchens in the Strip. When the WCK aid workers' car was attacked in Deir al Balah on Monday, both NGOs were preparing to host a second shipment of food by sea. The Open Arms tug set sail from Cyprus on Saturday, with 400 tonnes of food on board. The NGO has even built a breakwater to facilitate the unloading of the cargo.

The seven WCK workers who died were participating in the transfer of half of the first load of food delivered by the Open Arms, 100 tons of a total of 200, to a warehouse in Deir al Balah, in the center of the Palestinian territory. WCK has defined the area in a tweet as “without conflict”, a statement that clashes with the repeated warnings of United Nations officials, including the head of its humanitarian coordination, Martin Griffiths, who already declared in December that there is no left in Gaza. “no safe zone.” On Sunday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published, citing Israeli military and intelligence sources, that the Israeli army has established “extermination zones,” areas where anyone who dares to venture becomes a target.

As demonstrated by the death of his seven collaborators, Gaza is being the greatest challenge faced so far by the Asturian chef's NGO. Not even in Ukraine, WCK had faced such a violent conflict, a place with such a small and dead-end geography and, above all, such widespread hunger in a population of 2.2 million people who have nowhere to flee. . According to the latest Integrated Phase Classification (ICF, in Spanish, IPC, in English), a tool of international organizations considered the thermometer of hunger in the world, 50% of the 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza face to an extreme lack of food. In the north of the territory, famine was already imminent when the report was released on March 18.

The 32 million meals that, according to its own data, WCK has served in Gaza in the almost six months of the war have only minimally changed that picture. In Gaza, at least 32,850 people have already died due to Israel's military offensive, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Strip governed by Hamas. At least 30 have died from malnutrition and extreme dehydration, including 24 children and the elderly, according to the source.

From Asturias to the White House

Chef José Andrés exemplifies the American dream for many Americans; the success story of an immigrant who arrived almost empty-handed in the United States in 1990, at the age of 21, to work in the hospitality industry and whose rise has led him to own more than 20 restaurants in North American cities, including Minibar in Washington , with two Michelin stars, and cooking in the White House during the presidency of Barack Obama. José Andrés today is considered one of the hundred most influential people in the world, according to the magazine timewhich included it on its list in 2012 and 2018.

His prestige skyrocketed after the founding of the NGO: in 2015, former President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of Humanities, he has participated in several Oscar ceremonies, in 2019 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and won. the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord in 2021. Half of the amount of the award, worth 50,000 euros, was donated to the island of La Palma after the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

In 2022, United States President Joe Biden appointed him co-chair of the Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Advisory Council, an advisory body to the president that is responsible for promoting physical activity and healthy eating for all Americans, regardless of age. their origin or their capabilities. The White House assured that from now o
n it will include a new approach related to the promotion of mental health.

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