On the Ground in Myanmar After Earthquake

 

In this newsletter: Myanmar Earthquake | Gaza | Climate Crisis WCK cooking in Myanmar following earthquake  Our Relief Team is on the ground in Myanmar serving thousands of meals daily after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southeast Asia. Today, we began distributing family cooking kits with enough food to support a family for up to a week. Each kit has ingredients for more than 50 meals, including staples like rice and yellow lentils, as well as local flavor favorites like Massala powder and Nga Pi paste. Every kit was put together using local ingredients and will offer reliable meals for families who have lost access to food following the damage from the earthquake. WCK also partnered with local restaurants and chefs who have been cooking thousands of meals daily for impacted communities. This remains a quickly evolving situation as our teams scout the impacted region and identify local partners who can help scale our efforts. Gaza team adapts to support Palestinians facing reduced humanitarian access Our teams across Gaza are adapting in real time as challenges have mounted. We’ve fired up all stoves at our Deir al-Balah and Mawasi Field Kitchens to work to boost meal production. Operations at our two other large-scale kitchens were halted due to escalating attacks and evacuation orders. In response, we are working tirelessly to expand capacity at the kitchens that remain operational and are serving more than 126,000 meals daily.  Every day, WCK’s local team members cook as many meals as possible for fellow Palestinians. That commitment was on full display when an Israeli airstrike hit a building next to our Mawasi Field Kitchen. Within 24 hours, WCK’s culinary and maintenance teams returned to prepare meals and repair damage to the kitchen, helping to meet the urgent need for food as families evacuate on foot.   At the same time, evacuation orders in Khan Younis forced us to pause operations at Zomi’s Kitchen. Within an hour of the move, the bakery was already producing 25,000 loaves of bread daily at its new site in central Gaza. Read more about our work in Gaza. WCK's Shadi shares an update on the evacuation process, including the relocation of our mobile bakery. How WCK is adapting to the changing face of climate disasters Disasters are transforming, so are we. With changes in the climate and in our communities, the definition of “disaster” no longer fits into one neat box. Some disasters are lasting longer than ever, some are making sudden changes in direction, and some are compounded by having multiple disasters on top of one another. WCK’s disaster response efforts follow suit.    Across five responses in the US in 2025—wildfires in LA and North Carolina, our ongoing response to Hurricane Helene also in North Carolina, the outbreak of tornadoes across the Southeast, and flooding in Texas—our teams have adapted to changing needs and structures. Learn what this changing face of disaster means for WCK.