World Central Kitchen (WCK) is an organization
started in 2010 by world renown chef, José
Andrés, after the earthquake devastated Haiti.
Since that time, the organization has brought
hunger relief to multiple countries and
communities across the world. In 2020 alone,
World Central Kitchen spent more than $250
million providing meals for communities in the
United States and around the world across a
range of disasters from multiple hurricanes to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Andrés: “World Central Kitchen
started with a simple idea at home with my
wife Patricia: when people are hungry, send in
cooks. Not tomorrow, today.” Grounded in the
belief that it is “a universal human right to live
free from hunger,” the organization has built a sustainable model for addressing hunger
during a crisis. “We don’t just deliver raw ingredients and expect people to fend for
themselves, says Andrés. And we don’t just dump free food into a disaster zone: we source
and hire locally wherever we can, to jump-start economic recovery through food.” Over the course of time, World Central Kitchen has demonstrated again what anyone who has lived through a disaster existentially knows: “After a disaster, food is the fastest way to rebuild our sense of community. We can put people back to work preparing it, and we can put lives back together by fighting hunger.”
Andrés calls it “the power of the plate.” And he argues such a simple notion can “change the world.”
Food is a Universal Human Right
— World Central Kitchen