Serving Hot Meals to Gazans via World Central Kitchen

On Monday, June 23, World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) stoves in Gaza finally fired up again. WCK cooked 10,000 meals—warm and calorie-rich—on the first day they resumed operations. They had been forced to stop cooking on May 7 across all of their large-scale kitchens and mobile bakeries after running out of ingredients. The pause meant terrible hardship and malnutrition for so many Palestinians—many of them children—trying to survive in Gaza.

Photos courtesy of World Central Kitchen

Here’s what they wrote on the day their work resumed: 

This first aid shipment is an important milestone, but the effects of prolonged hunger do not disappear overnight. Hunger leaves deep physical and psychological scars—and even as meals begin again, the damage caused by extended access disruptions continues to impact families and communities. 

We are grateful to once again cook for the people of Gaza—but our continued ability to do so is not guaranteed. Consistent and sustained humanitarian access is essential. Our teams stand ready to scale efforts. Without it, feeding communities safely and effectively is impossible.

WCK’s return to operations was also covered in the New York Times. Read the full story here.