March 14 (UPI) — Senators Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Chris Coons, D-Del., hosted a Capitol Hill briefing with World Central Kitchen Founder and Chief Chef Jose Andres Thursday on how to get food aid into Gaza, Haiti and Ukraine.
The session focused on WCK’s global work to get food into areas where systems are disrupted by war and natural disasters.
Andres organization has served more than 34 million meals in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon since Oct. 7.
“The malnutrition crisis in Gaza is among the worst in the world. I’m inspired by the innovative work humanitarian aid organizations like World Central Kitchen have done to effectively operate on the ground in Gaza, Ukraine, and even in Vermont to provide fresh meals to hungry people,” said Coons in a statement.
Andres has acknowledged that sending food shipments into Gaza could still be a failure as the war continues. But, he said the true failure would be not to try.
Andres said, “We have a boat with a barge with almost 200 tons of food that we’re doing this pilot, because it’s the first time that anybody is going to be trying to arrive to the shores of Gaza in years, because there’s been a navy blockade of Gaza.”
The United States and Jordan Thursday continued food airdrops into northern Gaza in an effort to alleviate starvation as the war continues. It was the tenth U.S. airdrop, delivering13,900 meal equivalents
