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José Andrés' non-profit World Central Kitchen's partners have been hit by a missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
The organisation has been active in the country, and in neighbouring nations, feeding hungry people in 30 cities and serving 30,000 meals per day. But a missile strike at a partner site in Kharkiv has highlighted the danger the team are exposed to in order to carry out their humanitarian work.
“The @WCKitchen team and our fellow Ukrainians are unnerved but safe after a missile attack on a restaurant in Kharkiv,” Andrés wrote on Twitter.
“Giving food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience, resistance… and we will continue cooking.”
World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook was on the ground to observe the devastation in the aftermath of the attack that left four staff members wounded and one person apparently dead. The injured staff are said to be doing well and WCK's work cooking for those in need will continue.
“I'm outside of Yaposhka, one of our restaurant partners here. Less than 24 hours ago I was standing right here, picking up meals for the WCK team and meeting Vera and the Yaposhka staff,” Mook said in a video shot at the site. “Not too long ago a missile hit here and as you can see, tremendous amounts of damage, there's still a fire in the building there... There's a lot of damage to the kitchen area as well, a number of staff were wounded, they're at the hospital right now, nobody was killed in the restaurant but we are told that one person was killed in this strike.”
“This was a big hit as you can see, there's over a dozen cars burned out all around me, there's pieces of cars in a tree here, just a tremendous amount of carnage left behind for no reason."
“We are going to head to the hospital now and check on some of the restaurant staff, we are told they're OK, but this is the reality now for so many in Kharkiv, coming to work, cooking for people who are hungry is an immense act of bravery. We'll keep you updated.”
Mook later said that the staff were "doing well", and confirmed that WCK will continue their work cooking for those in need in Ukraine.
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