World Central Kitchen to scale back Gaza food operations
High-profile disaster relief organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) has announced it will systematically scale back its massive food distribution operations in Gaza over the coming months. The charity cited mounting, unsustainable financial pressures, warning that “the long-term responsibility of feeding Gaza cannot rest on the shoulders of one organization alone.”
The non-governmental organization explained that the decision to return to its “pre-ceasefire feeding levels” was driven entirely by severe budget constraints and does not reflect any downward trend in actual humanitarian needs on the ground. WCK, which is funded primarily by private, small-dollar donations, disclosed that it has invested more than half a billion dollars feeding displaced Palestinians since the outbreak of the conflict in 2023. Late last year, in response to a total collapse in civilian food security, the charity dramatically surged its output to provide an unprecedented one million hot meals a day, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
"Sustaining that level of output is not something any single NGO can do indefinitely," WCK said in an official statement, emphasizing that their core mission is fast-response emergency food relief rather than managing permanent, long-term food security ecosystems. The organization called on international governments and institutional partners to step up with secure, sustained funding rather than relying entirely on private charity groups.
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The announced cutbacks have sparked deep panic and protests among displaced families across central Gaza, who have warned that a reduction in free community kitchens will instantly push vulnerable communities back toward widespread famine. The crisis is compounded by rising food and fuel distribution costs linked to broader geopolitical friction from the Iran war. While a late-2025 ceasefire has theoretically eased some immediate operational security risks, ongoing border restrictions continue to bottle up aid trucks. United Nations monitoring groups report that total daily meals distributed by all combined humanitarian agencies in the territory have already plummeted from 1.8 million in February down to roughly one million today, leaving an estimated one in five Palestinian families eating only once a day.
By Aysel Mammadzada
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