World Central Kitchen Named WMV’s Organization of the Year For Heroic Response During Hurricane Melissa

World Central Kitchen (WCK), the disaster-relief nonprofit founded by chef José Andrés, is World Music Views’ Organization Of The Year.

As Jamaica, one of the world’s great music capitals, braced for the catastrophic arrival of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, the humanitarian organization activated its emergency network to deliver hot meals to families already seeking shelter.

In partnership with Mystic Thai, an upscale restaurant in St. Andrew, WCK teams worked before landfall to prepare comfort dishes of curried chicken, rice, and salad for residents already displaced by heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. “With our network of local partners, we’re ready to begin serving more meals as soon as it’s safe after Melissa’s landfall,” WCK wrote in a post on X, highlighting Mystic Thai’s role in #ChefsForJamaica.

That readiness soon became necessity. When Hurricane Melissa began lashing Jamaica on October 28, 2025, making landfall in southwest St. Elizabeth with winds nearing 300 km/h, the National Hurricane Center described the storm as “extremely dangerous,” warning of catastrophic winds, flash flooding, and storm surge across the island.

In the days that followed, World Central Kitchen scaled up rapidly — now surpassing 2 million meals served in Jamaica, including 1 million meals distributed in just the past week as recovery operations intensified. Meals have been delivered by car, boat, helicopter, and on foot, reaching communities cut off by flooding, landslides, and damaged infrastructure.

Hot meals are prepared in mobile kitchens and partner restaurants across multiple parishes. Images from the ground show chefs, volunteers, and WCK responders working shoulder-to-shoulder, packing trays of steaming basmati rice, flavorful curry chicken, and fresh salad — meals designed for speed, nourishment, and dignity during crisis.

A Global Relief Leader

Founded after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, World Central Kitchen served 130 million meals in 2025 and has become one of the world’s most effective rapid-response humanitarian organizations, operating in disaster zones across Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Palestine, the U.S., Ukraine and beyond.

The nonprofit has grown tremendously — funded at $30 million in 2019, soaring to $250 million in 2020 as the organization provided emergency meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Jeff Bezos awarded José Andrés $100 million through the Courage & Civility Award, strengthening WCK’s ability to expand logistics, staffing, and long-term capacity for the kind of global relief effort now underway in Jamaica.

That same year, donors contributed more than $500 million toward WCK operations. Today, the organization is led by CEO Erin Gore and Emergency Response Director Sam Bloch, supported by a staff of roughly 200 and thousands of volunteers worldwide.

Resilience in the Face of Tragedy

WCK’s mission has not been without painful sacrifice. On April 1, 2024, seven WCK workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza while delivering food aid. Andrés condemned the attack as deliberate and called for food delivery to remain protected under humanitarian law. The tragedy underscored the courage and risk inherent in feeding communities in conflict and disaster zones.

Why WCK Is WMV’s Organization of the Year

World Music Views honors World Central Kitchen as Organization of the Year for its extraordinary commitment to humanity, speed of action, and deep partnerships with local food communities.

Every year, World Music Views names the person — or people — who had the biggest cultural impact on music and entertainment over the previous 12 months. Influence is the key metric: who shaped conversations, shifted the industry, sparked movements, or defined the moment — whether the impact was positive, controversial, or disruptive.