Last Tuesday, the Peace and Justice Department presented the Adela Dwyer St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award to World Central Kitchen, an organization dedicated to helping those in crisis.
World Central Kitchen is a nonprofit that is first to the front lines in providing fresh and nourishing meals to communities in need. Every time there is a disaster, whether natural or man-made, WCK heads to the front lines as fast as humanly possible to support those affected by providing fresh meals.
The award was accepted by Laura Hayes, the senior manager of the Chefs Corps program of World Central Kitchen.
“We put an emphasis on fresh, and strive to provide nutritious, good, cultural meals,” Hayes said.
World Central Kitchen not only focuses on providing timely meals, but also food that is culturally important. The organization was founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, who sought to help those affected by the earthquake in Haiti. However, he soon realized that many of the Haitians were hesitant about the type of food provided and did not find it to be very comforting. He then was guided by the women of the community on how they prepared and cooked their black beans. This resulted in the Haitians not only being fed but being fed comfort food in a time when most of their comfort was stripped from them.
Now, World Central Kitchen is dedicated to making culturally significant meals by listening to locals for the best ways to feed a community. It recruits local chefs to teach them how to make their meals and how to make them well. Hayes says the organization has a “locals lead the way philosophy,” because, often, the locals know the best solutions but simply lack the resources.
World Central Kitchen gets those resources there as soon as possible, and it does not wait for it to be declared safe to travel there.
“Don’t tell me you are waiting until you have everything to do it. It has to be urgent,” Andrés said in a video shared during the ceremony. “Food and water is now.”
Hayes made a comment while accepting the award,
“This award comes at the most crucial time in our 15-year history,” she said.
World Central Kitchen is currently in its third full year of being stationed in Ukraine. It had a team arrive in Ukraine only hours after the initial invasion of Russia. It has been putting in immense work to allow those in Ukraine to have a source of fresh comfort in these extremely harsh times.
The organization has an emergency coordinator in each region that is in charge of sending out emergency response teams as soon as an attack occurs. It has more than 500 restaurant partners that provide hundreds of thousands of meals every single day. It also has 10 mobile kitchens that are moved directly to places struck and unable to provide a stable kitchen.
Tim Horner, Committee Chair for the Adela Dwyer St. Thomas of Villanova Award, spoke on why World Central Kitchen was chosen.
“The committee recommended WCK mostly because of its work in Ukraine after the Russian invasion,” he said. “But we are also excited about this new type of a that is embodied in their spirit. We were attracted to the way that they moved into these places of conflict and disaster with such speed and with such Enthusiasm to feed people who need fresh cooked food even when they are at their lowest.”
Horner said that the committee was extremely impressed by World Central Kitchen’s approach to providing fresh and cultural meals, especially compared to other organizations that simply ship dry bulk ingredients.
“WCK is concerned about human dignity,” he said. “That’s why we were attracted to this particular group. It is a new way of doing disaster relief that is much more dignified than some of the old international models.”
World Central Kitchen has also been extremely innovative work throughout the Israel/Palestine conflict. It has been providing food and aid to both those in Israel and refugees in Gaza.
“The WCK way is providing aid to anyone who needs it,” Hayes said when explaining that the organization is helping those in need on both sides.
World Central Kitchen focuses on supporting the families in war-torn communities regardless of their government. If the citizens are in need, WCK offers its help.
Not only does World Central Kitchen provide food and water, it also helps create new ways to cook food when typical cooking methods are impossible. Gaza was, and still is, having a fuel scarcity and WCK worked to design wood pellet stoves to fully cook their food without needing oil.
“We established community kitchens,” Andrés said in another video. “Providing the ingredients and the equipment so that the people of Gaza could cook for themselves.”
World Central Kitchen is a one-of-a-kind organization that is paving the way for aid organizations.
