A message from José Andrés and World Central Kitchen

"We are just several days away from it being five months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, displacing millions of people, claiming tens of thousands of lives, and destroying thousands of buildings and entire communities. But these numbers only partially convey what the Ukrainian people have had to endure. Refugees fleeing—primarily women, children, and seniors—have embarked on long and arduous journeys, waiting up to 72 hours before crossing the border to safety. People remaining in Ukraine are living through the trauma of constant shelling and the threat of uncertainty as more and more residential areas are targeted seemingly at random. 

As the situation has unfolded, the war in Ukraine has also become a war on food. Activity at ports and borders has been disrupted, straining the food supply that feeds not only Ukraine, but the world. Since activating five months ago, WCK food cargo trains, and restaurant and farm partners, have been hit by missiles. Still, every single day thousands of WCK's Ukrainian Food Fighters show up to provide nourishing meals and food aid to families remaining in the country. Today, our incredible teams served their 100 millionth meal in response to invasion.

Since the first cold night in February when WCK began serving soup to families fleeing the attack at a border crossing in Poland, we've delivered 100 million meals in eight countries, at more than 6,000 different distribution points, including in over 1,000 cities and towns inside Ukraine. Today, our teams inside Ukraine continue to expand efforts reaching families under constant attack in eastern cities while still caring for refugees who have fled west. Between the preparation of hot, fresh meals and large grocery kits with ingredients for families to cook with at home, we are serving more than 1.7 million meals every single day—this scale of an emergency response is beyond what World Central Kitchen has ever seen before, and we will keep cooking. 

With the situation in many eastern cities intensifying and needs outside Ukraine subsiding, we’re scaling down our efforts in neighboring countries to focus on ramping up our response for the most vulnerable families. Working with the thousands of WCK team members across Ukraine, we will continue to reach as many people in need of hot meals and grocery kits as we can. 

WCK envisions—and continues to hope for—a world where we would not have to respond to senseless violence under these circumstances, but we are beyond grateful to stand alongside more than 4,300 brave Food Fighters who work tirelessly to ensure anyone in need is met with a hot meal. It is because of all the WCK team members, volunteers, and global community of supporters that our efforts in Ukraine and in seven neighboring countries have been made possible—thank you. Read more about how we built the largest humanitarian food relief effort in Ukraine."

Received in an email because of my previous contributions [boldface added].  The video has only 74 views as of right now, so I thought perhaps I could give it a little boost.  And they will get another contribution from me.

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Reposted from last year because of the earthquake in Turkiye.  Chef Jose Andres sent out a call today for helpers with experience preparing food in that region.  I expect kitchens will be set up before the end of the week.