World Central Kitchen aims to scale meals in Gaza as Amnesty International decries starvation policy

José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK), is visiting Gaza and Israel to expand the organization’s daily food aid operations. At the same time, Amnesty International is unveiling a report on how malnutrition impacts mothers, while critiquing what it says are deliberate starvation policies in the devastated region. 

Advocating for increased aid to stop Palestinians’ starvation, WCK’s Andrés says he seeks to scale production to one million hot meals daily. This would require five field kitchens along with supplies for smaller community kitchens. WCK reports serving over 145 million meals in Gaza and more than 2 million in Israel since the war’s beginning. 

At the moment, WCK is producing 200,000 meals in Gaza per day. However, food supply restrictions and constraints have reduced cooking.

WCK notes that, to achieve its goals, it needs greater supply chain access through several entry points and to send over 100 trucks daily. It will also need permission to access fuel directly. 

In Gaza, Andrés met with the WCK teams at one of the field kitchens, a bakery, and two facilities in the Deir al Balah area.

WCK call for compassion

Andrés met with the family members of some of those who lost their lives during the October 7 Hamas attack in Re’im, 2023. He also visited the music festival site where hundreds of young Israelis were killed and over 40 people were taken hostage. 

José Andrés visits the site of the Nova Festival attack.WCK says Andrés plans to meet with the Israeli hostage families and US leaders while in the region.

“We are on the side of humanity and feeding people,” says Andrés. “We urge compassion, love, and care for both Palestinians and Israelis.” 

“We firmly believe that in the worst of situations, the best of humanity shows up. We continue our calls for a ceasefire, the hostages to be released, and an end to this cruelty and suffering on all sides.”

Testimonies of mothers

Meanwhile, Amnesty International is unveiling new testimonies evidence that Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza is a “deliberate policy.” The organization interviewed two medical staff members treating malnourished children in two Gaza hospitals, along with 19 people residing in makeshift camps for internally displaced people. 

“As Israeli authorities escalate their attacks on Gaza City and threaten to launch a full-scale ground invasion, the testimonies we have collected are far more than accounts of suffering, they are a searing indictment of an international system that has granted Israel a license to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades,” says Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International cites malnutrition affecting 43% of 747 mothers, according to Save the Children screening. Mothers feel guilt, shame, and anxiety over malnutrition’s impact on their children’s growth as they struggle to obtain food, baby formula, and clean water under extreme summer heat.

One interviewee shares that she was not able to supply breastmilk by the end of April and had extremely limited access to maternal supplements. The entire family’s daily meal, when available, consisted of one plate of lentils or eggplants with water. 

A three-day supply of infant formula costs 270 shekels (US$79), which is not only unaffordable but also scarce to find.

“I fear miscarriage, but I also think about my baby: I panic just thinking about the potential impact of my own hunger on the baby’s health, its weight, whether it will have (birth defects), and even if the baby is born healthy, what life awaits it amid displacement, bombs, and tents,” shares Hadeel, a four-month pregnant mother of two.

Amnesty International says several women have chosen not to conceive due to bombardments and poor living conditions.

Displaced families sheltering in Mawasi rely on WCK-provided meals from the local Field Kitchen.The WHO Director-General recently condemned the “man-made” mass starvation in the Gaza Strip, as 2.1 million people are trapped in the war zone.

Vitamin Angels previously discussed hidden hunger with Nutrition Insight, which is a form of malnutrition in which people have enough calories to survive but not enough essential vitamins and nutrients. It called for highly collaborative approaches across sectors to tackle this issue. Additionally, its registered dietitian nutritionist explained that when pregnant women are malnourished, they can give birth to malnourished children — “perpetuating a cycle that impacts their health and economic well-being for years and even generations to come.”

Blockade continues

Amnesty International finds that Palestinians in three Gaza displacement camps have not consumed eggs, fish, meat, tomatoes, or cucumbers for at least a month, and many for several months.

This month, the UN also reported that sending aid to Gaza is a struggle. 

“Out of the 16 missions, four were facilitated and three were denied; another four were impeded but eventually were fully accomplished,” shares UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Other remaining missions were cancelled by their organizations, and those that involved collecting food and health supplies were impeded and unable to be completed.

“Efforts to coordinate humanitarian movements often drag on for hours due to unpredictable clearances by the Israeli authorities, wasting precious time,” Dujarric adds.

The World Food Program calls for at least 100 of its trucks to be allowed through the northern, central, and southern border points.

WCK chefs prepare hearty potato stews and warm pasta meals prepared for communities.The Gaza Strip was recently labeled as the most severe famine scenario, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The international pressure to allow for aid prompted Israel to declare a “humanitarian pause.”

We recently spoke with Minal Soni, founder and CEO of FortiFit Global, which is developing affordable, high-nutrition food innovations to reach vulnerable communities worldwide. Soni discussed balancing cost and nutritional impact, and the tangible difference their products are making in addressing food insecurity.

Action against global malnutrition

In other recent news, tackling malnutrition across the globe, UNICEF increased health and nutrition support for children fleeing the violence in Southern Syria. Its teams served in temporary shelters in Rural Damascus. Over 191,000 people — mainly women and children — were forced to escape their homes. 

In Afghanistan, UNICEF and WFP recently formed an action plan to halt child wasting, focused on maternal nutrition, local food solutions, and combining facilities with community-based services. The action plan is rolling out starting this month, as 2025 saw the sharpest surge in child malnutrition on record, says John Aylieff, WFP Country Director in Afghanistan. 

The plan follows UNICEF’s recent launch of the First Foods Afghanistan initiative, seeking to help improve diets by targeting nutrition and food systems until 2028, after finding that 90% of children in the nation are suffering from food poverty.