José Andrés' World Central Kitchen Is Feeding Afghan Refugees and Haitian Earthquake Survivors—Here's How You Can Help

When furloughed workers and kids home from school needed a steady supply of food at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Central Kitchen stepped up. But that's no surprise. The José Andrés-helmed nonprofit organization has been leading the charge to keep people fed around the world since its launch in 2010. Now, with families landing in cities across the world after fleeing Afghanistan and folks in Haiti working to rebuild their homes after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, World Central Kitchen is springing into action.

The organization's two new initiatives, #ChefsForAfghans and #ChefsForHaiti, sent chefs to various cities to cook fresh, hot meals for families, neighbors and first responders. While World Central Kitchen has not disclosed all of the cities where it's supporting Afghan families, the nonprofit has announced that it's doling out hot meals in Spain and Washington, D.C. One mother, who had been on a plane for 26 hours with her two children, arrived at a World Central Kitchen outpost having not eaten since the morning before, the nonprofit shared on Instagram.

"What's happening in Afghanistan breaks my heart… but the outpouring of support from people across America helps glue it back," Andrés wrote on his own page this week. "Our @WCKitchen team at Dulles Airport saw even more refugees today… They had to go bring hundreds of extra meals & are still serving!" You can donate specifically to the effort to feed Afghan families on World Central Kitchen's website.

Getty Images / Paul Morigi / Michael M. Santiago

In Haiti, students and graduates from École des Chefs culinary school in Port-au-Prince helped get a relief kitchen together within 24 hours of the earthquake. For more than two weeks, local chefs have worked with World Central Kitchen to launch four kitchens in three Haitian cities, making batches of rice and beans, peanut-butter braised chicken stew and Haitian chicken. The World Central Kitchen team has even worked to assist with medical evacuations and meal delivery to isolated communities in Haiti.

To directly support World Central Kitchen's efforts in Haiti, you can donate through World Central Kitchen's website. (You can also make a general donation to the nonprofit to support their ongoing relief efforts of all kinds.)