José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which is central to the American Gaza aid plan, wants to intensify this

Since October, organizers and Palestinian chefs have been working with the World Central Cuisine — the aid organization founded by the renowned Spanish chef José Andrés – have served more than 32 million meals in Gaza, the group said. Plans for the U.S. military to build a floating pier to bring aid to the enclave would give the group critical access to a steady supply of food they need to more than double the meals they serve daily and to further help people in the north. part of Gaza, Andrés said in an interview on Thursday.

“We are trying to do the impossible,” he said. “It is worth trying the impossible to feed the people of Gaza.”

The organization has established 65 communal kitchens in Gaza that are run by local Palestinians, with plans to add at least 35 more, Mr. Andres said. About 350,000 meals are served every day, but Mr Andrés said he would like to distribute more than a million meals.

Getting food and aid to Gaza was a huge challenge, he said. The World Central Kitchen has resorted to providing some assistance through air drops with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

Mr. Andrés founded the organization in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed about 300,000 people. Since then, he has responded to numerous natural disasters and wars in the United States and abroad. The association served millions of meals to Puerto Ricans affected by Hurricane Maria in 2017 Ukrainians affected by the war against Russia, and most recently for people affected by fires Chili And Texasamong other things.

“We have to shoot for the moon because wherever we fall, it will be worth it,” he said.

The association is the largest emergency food program ever created by a group of chefs, serving more than 350 million meals since its inception. The impact is immediate as he and his staff can network quickly, organize kitchens under tough conditions and source ingredients and equipment.

The kitchens, like those in Gaza, are often managed by locals, who cook their dishes. Many of those recipes have been collected in one World Central Kitchen Cookbook which was published in September.