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wck.org
(We are) writing to share an update on WCK’s ongoing work serving meals in the Middle East. Since October, WCK has served over 17.6 million meals across the region to support families in need of food and water. Our Relief Team has moved quickly and tirelessly to access areas of greatest need and build supply chains to deliver humanitarian aid. I’ve included a full update of our work below.
Thank you for your support and partnership in this critical work - it means the world to us. To sustain our work, WCK is working to raise and spend $1 million a day to support communities in Gaza and across the Middle East. We welcome ongoing support for this work. If you have any questions or would like to connect, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
We welcome ongoing support for this work.
Gaza
WCK, along with our partner, Anera, has served over 15.8 million meals through hot meals and food kits in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict in October. In December, our team established a WCK Field Kitchen in Rafah, serving around 14,000 meals a day and 13,000 loaves of bread, and will continue to scale up production as supplies, specially developed wood stoves, and ovens are available. WCK also continues to work with 19 partners by delivering bulk food supplies to fuel their work as well.
In addition to the WCK Field Kitchen, our team is working to distribute across Rafah resources to prepare meals. Our Relief Team has established several community kitchens for families in Rafah able to cook for themselves. After connecting with community leaders, WCK is sending community kitchen kits that contain cooking equipment and supplies, along with enough food for around 2,000 meals daily for up to one week. WCK team members on the ground offer ongoing support to these kitchens by assisting with set up and troubleshooting, and providing a resupply of food from one of 4 WCK warehouses as needed. There are currently 12 active community kitchens, 7 additional kitchens being set up and soon to be cooking, and 29 confirmed communities who will receive community kitchen kits soon. The team on the ground in Gaza is working to identify new locations for community kitchens and is working to expand our scouting teams to reach all areas of need.
As Ramadan approaches, our culinary team has finalized a plan to support families during this month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community, observed by Muslims worldwide. WCK will provide food kits with approximately 50 meals each to families marking the occasion.
With other aid organizations now able to reach the Rafah region and provide additional support, we are expanding our focus to reaching people in the central and northern regions of Gaza where others have been unable to provide assistance. WCK has established a field kitchen in Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City to support one of the hardest hit areas. We are also working with the UN to deliver ready-to-eat meals (RTEs) to northern Gaza, currently the most difficult area to access, as we develop a strategy to cook and provide more hot meals to the region. WCK is providing 330,000 meals worth of food and kitchen equipment to northern Gaza to our field kitchen in the Al Shifa Hospital and other hospitals. We hope to continue to expand into this region and establish additional community kitchens in Khan Younis and the North, as well as expanding to coastal regions as many families are now also evacuating to the coast.
Our Logistics Team in Cairo continues to tirelessly work to cross supply trucks into Gaza each day. The rate of trucks crossing the border is variable; up to 20 WCK aid trucks have been able to cross daily. Our team also continues to face obstacles at the border with certain equipment, such as solar panels and some water filtration systems, that have not been allowed in humanitarian shipments. Recently, WCK has sent 10 trucks carrying a total of 307,000 RTE meals from Jordan to be delivered to the Jordanian Hospital in Gaza.
Israel
WCK provided 1.7 million meals in Israel to people displaced and impacted by the conflict. In recent weeks, we have provided 4,000 hot meals a day along with 3,000 food kits and 500 produce boxes a week. Our team has continued to monitor needs throughout the region, and has determined that there are no longer emergency food needs that require WCK support. With other organizations stepping in to provide long term support to communities affected by the conflict, and food markets functioning and food accessible, WCK’s last day of food distribution in Israel is January 12.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, the WCK team continues to serve around 4,500 meals a day to displaced families sheltering from the conflict that are unable to cook for themselves. All assistance to Lebanon is currently being provided by local NGOs and volunteer groups. WCK has served more than 192,000 meals in Lebanon since the start of the conflict.
Tunde Wackman
Chief Development Officer
World Central Kitchen