“Cooking and eating together is what makes us human”

Rapid interventions to support communities in the direct aftermath of a disaster is key to ensuring a better recovery. Humanitarian, climate, and community crises can result in devastating loss of life, cause damage to infrastructure, destroy crops and disrupt critical food and other supply systems, often leading to longer-term food supply concerns and a serious impact on the economy.

The relief programs work on the principal of rebuilding community through food. It is not about delivering raw ingredients and expecting people to fend for themselves; it is not about just dumping free food into a disaster zone. It is about sourcing and hiring locally wherever and whenever possible, to jump-start economic recovery through food.

After a disaster, food is the fastest way to rebuild a sense of community. Let’s put people back to work preparing food, and put lives back together by fighting hunger.

“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.” – Chef José Andrés

The goal of these relief programs is to respond with the “urgency of now” to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

Activities

Without a crystal ball, it is hard to predict where the next need will be. But when disaster strikes, a dedicated and experienced relief team activates quickly, deploying their model of quick action, leveraging local resources, and adapting in real time.  Often responding to multiple disasters at once (and often on opposite ends of the world), WCK  partners with organizations on the ground, galvanizing a local network of existing restaurants, food trucks or emergency kitchens to provide freshly made, nutritious meals to survivors of disasters quickly and effectively.

Some of the main activities include:

• Relief Programs: When disaster strikes, the Relief Team mobilizes to the frontlines with the’ urgency of now’ to start cooking and providing meals to people in need.

• WCK Direct – Integrating Restaurants into the Disaster Model: Launched in New York City in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, this program works towards dealing with the economic fallout of the crisis at hand creates by tapping into the local network of restaurants. Local community organizations help identify households struggling with access to food who in turn order food prepared by the participating restaurants.

• Resilience Programs: Once the emergency is over, and where possible, longer-term commitments of support can be made in places where chronic food system challenges can be addressed. The Resilience Programs include the Clean Cooking program; the Food Producer Network; WCK Chef Relief Training; Community Relief Centres; and the École des Chefs, WCK’s culinary school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Myriad Canada is working with World Central Kitchen on this project, a nonprofit that provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises and builds resilient food systems with locally led solutions.