Owner of several restaurants in the United States, the star chefé Spanish-American José Andrés is a regular; humanitarian operations. He went à Gaza and committed itself to &agrav; deliver hundreds of tons of food aid. A star chef &agrav; at the head of a food aid operation destination of the Gaza Strip. With the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), of which he is the founder, Spanish-American chef José Andrés has already provided substantial food aid in the Palestinian enclave. "We have served more than 35 million meals, senté more than 1 400 trucks à across the Rafah crossing and opened more than 60 community kitchens à across Gaza" exposes the renowned chefé in a press release, but on March 12, 2024, a new operation signed WCK began. : sending a boat "filled with nearly 200 tons of food and a'team" to make the first maritime delivery of aid Gaza. 
WCK-provided aid has set sail for Gaza on the @openarms_fund boat. We dispatched almost 200 tons of food—rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies & proteins. Alongside the @UAEAid & @CyprusMFA, our Relief Team is working to send as many aid boats as possible.#ChefsForThePeople pic.twitter.com/oypXF8WbDH
— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) March 12, 2024
José Andrés and the WCK organization mobilized with the inhabitants of Gaza from the first weeks following the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas after the attack of the Islamist group on October 7, 2023. Thanks to its network of chefs and professionals in the food sector as well as with the help of volunteers, the NGO is ' agrave; even import food to initiate aid and can count on partners to continue the distribution of meals to disaster victims.
Gaza is not the first mission for which Chief José Andr&eac;s and his NGO are committed. Word Central Kitchen has been launched. background in 2010 after the devastating earthquake in Haiti and has since found itself back in the country. on numerous disaster sites: Puerto Rico after the passage of Hurricane Maria in 2017, various actions in the United States in 2020 during the Covid pandemic -19 or in Ukraine in 2022 after Russia invades the country. Since 2010, 350 million meals have been provided. distributed according to the NGO.
200 tons of food en route and 500 tons à come
Among the 200 tons of food aid harvested and being transported to Gaza, we find rice, vegetables, sources of protein, canned foods… A wide range of foodstuffs to meet the needs of civilians who find themselves in the midst of armed conflict. The contribution is already there. colossal and our team has an additional 500 tonnes of aid available. Cyprus, ready to join &be loaded onto future boats" warns Jos&eac; Andrés.
But since the start of the conflict, the aid provided has been concentrated mainly in the south of the Gaza Strip, as the star leader pointed out. on its networks when traveling abroad. Gaza last December: "I visited' many kitchens from WCK à Gaza. This is à Rafah […] serves thousands of meals a day… in addition to delivering our food kits à thousands of families per day. The situation in the south is tense but… The real crisis is in the north where; hundreds of thousands live in terrible conditions. And it is precisely towards the north of Gaza that José Andrés wants to deliver some of the aid brought by the sea convoy, because "the people of northern Gaza are suffering and really need this food”.
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But if the entry of humanitarian aid to southern Gaza is already there, complicated, it is even more blocked towards the north. Consequence: food is lacking in quantity throughout the enclave. To bring in more food, the WCK works in parallel with sending the boat to other countries. the construction of a pier "which will serve [them] unload the aid before loading it onto trucks that will deliver the food. This pier is for the moment the only hope of bringing aid by sea and circumventing some of the difficulties facing the humanitarian convoys à the entrance to Gaza.
A million meals a day
With these 60 WCK kitchens already available established and the arrival of tons of food Gaza, the star chef sets the objective of being able to distribute one million meals per day in the Gaza Strip, in addition to distributing part of these meals in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
The aid provided by Jos's NGO Andrés is precious, but she cannot be enough for you. meet the needs of Gazans. As the World Food Program (WFP) reminded us at the end of February 2024, there is a real risk of famine in the Gaza Strip by 2024. May according to the Committeeé review of famine. The UN has also warned of this risk which seems increasingly inevitable.