AILSA CHANG, HOST:
World Central Kitchen has announced that it has served more than 1 million hot meals in Gaza today. That's 1 million meals in one day. And this is a new daily milestone for the aid agency, which has been through a lot in recent years. Two years ago, seven of its workers were killed by an Israeli strike, and last year, famine was officially declared in northern Gaza, following years of widespread hunger across the territory. But in recent months, a ceasefire has allowed World Central Kitchen to rapidly increase its activity there. And for the latest update, we're joined by its founder, Chef Jose Andres. Welcome.
JOSE ANDRES: Thank you for having me.
CHANG: Thank you for being with us. Well, first of all, congratulations on hitting the 1 million mark. Can you just tell me more about what an operation serving that many meals every single day even looks like on the ground? Describe it for me.
ANDRES: Well, you know, I - we always believe at World Central Kitchen that locals know best. So obviously, very proud of World Central Kitchen, but I'm even prouder that the people of Gaza are feeding Gaza. We have mobile bakeries. We have three. They are some of the best bakeries you can find anywhere in the world. The government of Jordan helped us build them and ship them there. But also, we partner with local bakeries. Why? Because we need to be supporting the locals.
We have also six kitchens of World Central kitchen that we do over a hundred thousand meals in each one of them. But then we have more than 60 kitchen partners that help us reach every single part of Gaza. Also, we have private restaurants that we support, because it's very important that we start supporting local restaurants because we need to keep rebuilding the local infrastructure.
CHANG: Wow.
ANDRES: So that's how World Central Kitchen has arrived to 1 million meals. Obviously, it's a bittersweet celebration. It's bittersweet because, yes, World Central Kitchen is doing this, other NGOs, but more aid needs to arrive every single day, starting yesterday, today.
CHANG: And as you're working to intensify this effort, I know that personal safety for your workers is still an issue as the Israeli military continues airstrikes in Gaza, which it says are for targeting militants or responding to Hamas attacks. How worried are you about the safety of your workers still, even as the ceasefire has come down for a few months?
ANDRES: We are very worried every day when you are in a conflict zone of everyone, not only of everyone of the World Central Kitchen team members, but for everyone - every civilian, every children, every humanitarian. Gaza has been a hard place for the last two years, and we must be bringing this very simple ask. As President Trump is trying to move the peace plan forward is something we all should celebrate, but we need to be asking that no more civilians must be dying.
CHANG: The holy month of Ramadan is approaching in about a week. How is your organization preparing for that to try to help people observe during that month?
ANDRES: Well, the kitchens are going to be obviously fully functional. We do hot meals. We are planning to deliver a hundred thousand Ramadan food kits. Every food kit produces around 70 family meals. So we're going to be delivering to a hundred thousand families a hundred thousand Ramadan food kits. So when they gather with dignity at iftar, they know that they will be able to do that. But World Central Kitchen, for many reasons this year, we're going to go with these Ramadan food kits even stronger.
CHANG: It is breathtaking to hear you describe the scale, the level of the effort that's underway right now. I mean, serving just 1 million meals per day is remarkable. But yes, this is a territory with - what? - a prewar population of a little over 2 million. So as much as you are doing now, let me ask you this, Jose, what will it take in your mind? What conditions would need to be in place for your operation to be able to finally start scaling down its presence there?
ANDRES: Yeah. World Central Kitchen is precisely an emergency situation. We go to places that we believe everything is being destroyed in such a way that they need the help that World Central Kitchen provides and cover the short-term needs of the hungry population. Obviously, already we began doing this. By having more than 60 partner kitchens, we are already believing that the future of the people of Gaza is where - is one where they can feed themselves. But we need more than 60. We need many more. We need probably two, three, four hundred. We need more restaurants to reopen again. We need to understand that big part of Gaza is rubble. Everything has been destroyed.
But obviously, now that President Trump is about to have a peace conference where the main theme is going to be Gaza, the bombing needs to stop. The civilian casualties need to stop. Targeting reporters and doctors and humanitarians - obviously, this cannot be allowed. It was never supposed to happen but has to stop. Today. We are not doing enough. We must do more on behalf of all the people of Gaza.
CHANG: Jose Andres - chef, restaurateur and founder of the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen. Thank you so much, Jose, for everything that you're doing.
ANDRES: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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