then just feed one

Invester' Corproite Development' Entrepreneur & Idealist Barry Perkins

World Food Programme

World Central Kitchen is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. We build resilient food systems with locally led solutions. World Central Kitchen started with a simple idea at home with my wife Patricia: when people are hungry, send in cooks. Not tomorrow, today. Everyone knows that food is central to life and family all over the world. What we learned very quickly was that food is even more essential in a crisis. It all began in 2010 after a huge earthquake devastated Haiti. Cooking alongside displaced Haitians in a camp, I found myself getting schooled in how to cook black beans the way they wanted: mashed and sieved into a creamy sauce. You see, food relief is not just a meal that keeps hunger away. It’s a plate of hope.

It tells you in your darkest hour that someone, somewhere, cares about you. This is the real meaning of comfort food. It’s why we make the effort to cook in a crisis. We don’t just deliver raw ingredients and expect people to fend for themselves. 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. 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.

Cooking and eating together is one of the things that makes us human. Since those early days, our journey has taken World Central Kitchen all over the world. We fed an island after Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico. We fed tens of millions struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic. We put boots on the ground when a blast devastated Beirut, bushfires ripped through Australia, and a volcano transformed a Spanish island.

We were under a bridge with thousands of asylum seekers in Texas, in a demolished Kentucky town after brutal tornadoes, on the Louisiana coast when yet another enormous hurricane made landfall.

We have travelled a long way together, with support from people just like you. We have witnessed enough disasters to know that food relief is not enough. So we have invested in our Food Producer Network to help create resilience ahead of the next disaster. We train aspiring chefs in skills and safety to build their careers and the food economy. We advocate for more hunger relief and better nutrition. We want clean cookstoves in the homes of the one billion cooks whose health, and the climate, are in danger, when all they want to do is feed their families. And we launched our Climate Disaster Fund: a $1 billion commitment over the next decade to support communities impacted by the climate crisis. Because food is not a luxury reserved for the lucky few. It’s a universal human right to live free from hunger. At times like these, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the challenges we face, and the speed of each new crisis. But many complex problems have simple solutions. Sometimes you just need to decide to do something. Sometimes you just have to show up with a sandwich or some warm rice and beans. You’d be amazed at the power of a plate of food. It can change the world, and so can you.

José Andrés Founder

Emergency Food Relief. For food relief efforts, World Central Kitchen activates our Chef Relief Team, comprised of professional chefs, logistics experts, and other specialists to establish and oversee the emergency kitchens we operate after a disaster. Our work wouldn’t be possible without amazing volunteers, most of whom are local from the communities we are serving. Some people do drive or fly in to assist, but they do so at their own cost and by making their own arrangements. We train our volunteers on the lines, and can use people with professional cooking experience, 4×4 vehicles to help with food purchases and deliveries, and anyone willing to serve a fresh meal with a smile. In many cases, we welcome children accompanied by adults. Different emergency relief kitchens will have varying capacities to accommodate our younger helpers, so be sure to check when signing up for a volunteer shift.

To keep our team, volunteers, and everyone safe, we have robust COVID-19 safety precautions in place. Masks must be worn at all times on-site and additional protocols are outlined on our volunteer site. Before you can sign up to volunteer, you must create a profile using the button below. Once you are a member of the World Central Kitchen Volunteer Corps, you will be able to sign up for specific shifts as needs become available. Please note, our volunteer needs change quickly, so continue to check back for updates. If you are interested in volunteering with our #ChefsForUkraine response in Poland Since the invasion of Ukraine, World Central Kitchen’s Relief Team has been on the ground supporting families sheltering in the country as well as refugees arriving in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and most recently, in Spain. Cooking out of our own Relief Kitchen in Przemysl, Poland and mobilizing a vast network of chefs and volunteers across all six countries, World Central Kitchen is providing nearly 200,000 hot, nourishing meals every day. We’re also making daily food product deliveries into Ukraine and throughout the country for World Central Kitchen restaurant partners' cooking.

What began as four women making 500 sandwiches a day has now turned into a full-scale operation of 10,000 sandwiches – as well as 16,000 hot meals –being prepped every day at World Central Kitchen’s FEST kitchen in Lviv, Ukraine. The team has been cooking since the war started and continues to do so, even though consistent air raid sirens that force them to shelter for safety multiple times a day. Dishes include marinated pork, roasted potatoes, beans, cabbage, and hot soup!