GAZA UPDATE | Limited Hot Meal Production Resumes

 

In this newsletter: Gaza | Texas | Guatemala | Haiti Limited hot meal service resumes in Gaza After a five day pause, limited cooking operations resumed today at World Central Kitchen's Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen in Gaza. This marks the second time in 2025 our hot meal program has been forced to halt due to a lack of available food supplies. Our teams on the ground are showing deep commitment and resilience, starting to cook again as quickly as possible. Access to supplies remains fragile. This most recent cooking pause began last Sunday when we ran out of essential ingredients. During the week, we were able to distribute bread and water. Our ability to continue cooking remains uncertain day-to-day. “I am immensely proud of the ongoing work of the WCK Gaza team through unimaginable challenges. It is because of them that we are able to cook again for hospitals and vulnerable families in Deir al-Balah,” said Wadhah, WCK’s Response Director. Read our full update. WCK serves meals as Texans recover from floods As central Texas begins to recover from historic flooding, communities braced for more floods and severe rainstorms over the past two weeks. Despite these ongoing challenges, WCK is serving hundreds of meals each day to families and first responders. Since July 4, in the immediate aftermath of flooding impacting local communities and summer camps, WCK has provided thousands of meals.  Our Relief Team is tapping into local knowledge to ensure meals reach people in need quickly. Local restaurants have been central to this effort. Watch the video below to see how Pint & Plow, one of our partners, rapidly transformed into a relief kitchen, serving families and first responders. Donate to Texas Hundreds of quakes rock Guatemala WCK is on the ground in Guatemala after hundreds of earthquakes—including one measuring 5.7—caused fatalities, destroyed homes and infrastructure, and triggered landslides that have cut off entire communities. Many areas remained without power, water, and other essential resources for several days after the initial quake. Our teams are delivering nourishing, traditional meals like tamales, along with water and food kits to families in need. Our efforts are powered in large part by locals like Doña Lucía. In Santa María de Jesús, where many homes were damaged, she helped organize her neighbors and worked alongside our team to ensure meal distributions ran smoothly. Her efforts, and those of others like her, have helped WCK reach isolated communities quickly and effectively.  Doña Lucia is among the many locals helping power our efforts. WCK has a long history of support in Guatemala, serving families during Hurricane Iota in 2020 and Hurricane Julia in 2022, delivering more than 300,000 meals after the 2018 eruption of the Fuego Volcano. WCK has also provided more than $400,000 in grants to small-scale food businesses to strengthen food security and has supported families in transitioning from wood-burning stoves to safer, healthier cooking fuels. Haitian cooks step up for displaced neighbors When violence erupted in Haiti earlier this year, displacing more than 1 million people, WCK immediately began working with longtime partners to provide relief. With local cooks like Virginie, we've served more than 1 million meals to families in need. We asked for your help—and you delivered. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our recent survey. Your insights are incredibly valuable and help guide our work moving forward. We’re grateful for your support.