By Daniel Poole | Development Manager
A devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on August 14, claiming over 2,200 lives, overwhelming hospitals with the number of people injured, and destroying tens of thousands of homes. The quake, combined with Tropical Storm Grace that made landfall just days later, triggered landslides that complicated transportation and cut off access to remote regions. An estimated 650,000 people were in need of emergency humanitarian assistance directly following the earthquake.
WCK’s students and former graduates from École des Chefs (EDC), our culinary school in Port-au-Prince, began preparing sandwiches for first responders heading closer to the quake’s epicenter to provide medical assistance and help with evacuations. Under the leadership of EDC Culinary Director Chef Mi-Sol, our students continued to provide thousands of sandwiches and hot meals each day. Our Chef Relief Team established a second kitchen in Port-au-Prince and delivered food to first responders working at the city’s airfield and via helicopter and airplane to the hardest-hit towns in southern Haiti. We also began transporting food and medical supplies via air from Port-au-Prince to these communities, which were difficult to reach due to their remote location, the damage to roads caused by the quake and landslides, and gang violence in the area.
WCK established kitchens in Jeremie and Les Cayes, two towns that were most destroyed by the earthquake. In Jeremie, this required us to use a bulldozer to clear the way for our truck carrying supplies since the bridge into the town was too damaged. These kitchens allowed us to distribute meals to affected communities more quickly and efficiently. We shipped our large paella pans to these kitchens so we were able to produce thousands of meals per day. At the height of our response, WCK was serving 20,000+ meals each day to more than 60 locations, delivering hope and comfort to families.
Haiti is a country that is special to WCK’s past, present, and future. We were founded following the 2010 earthquake and have maintained a long-term presence through our Clean Cooking Program, which transformed more than 140 kitchens — making schools a cleaner and safer place to work and learn — and our École des Chefs. The students and former graduates of EDC form a network of skilled chefs that can be activated quickly to provide meals following a disaster, as exemplified by our response to the earthquake. Through EDC and other programs still to come, we plan to continue and expand our footprint in Haiti — and mobilize whenever we are needed.
Thank you for supporting our emergency response. By operating relief kitchens, partnering with local chefs, organizing countless helicopter and airplane deliveries, and receiving the assistance of amazing Haitian staff, WCK served more than 685,000 meals to communities affected by the earthquake.
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