World Central Kitchen teams are distributing food to communities in Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart in the northern state of La Guaira on June 24.
Central Kitchen of the World
In La Guaira, a coastal region north of Caracas that was among the hardest hit by Venezuela’s twin earthquakes on June 24, rescue workers are halting their work several times a day. The tractors fall silent as someone calls into the debris, hoping to respond to whoever is still trapped under it.
For Olivier de Belleroche, World Central Kitchen’s culinary manager for Europe, known throughout the organization as Chef Oli, those times are among the most difficult.
He says: “Everyone stops. “Someone shouts, ‘If anyone is alive, knock three times and shout.’ And then everyone is very quiet.” For a few seconds, everyone listens for any sign of life under the rubble.
Five days after 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck Venezuela, those breaks have become even more difficult. The chances of finding survivors are diminishing, but families continue to wait outside the collapsed buildings as rescuers continue to search.
As of June 29, more than 1,700 people have been confirmed dead, more than 5,000 injured and nearly 16,000 displaced, with tens of thousands still missing or unaccounted for. The United Nations estimates that the disaster could eventually affect 6.76 million people.
Meeting Urgent Need
As rescuers continue to search for survivors, another urgent need has arisen.
Thousands of people who have lost their homes have taken shelter in schools, parks and makeshift camps. Rescuers work long shifts in the sweltering heat, often without stopping to eat, while families spend their days near collapsed buildings waiting for news of loved ones. With so many people gone and daily life disrupted, access to food has become an immediate priority.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) moved quickly to provide food to those affected.
This non-profit organization works throughout Miranda, La Guaira, and Carabobo with 19 restaurants and community partners to prepare and distribute fresh food to displaced families, rescuers, hospital workers, volunteers, and people sheltered on the streets.
A man waits in a makeshift tent at the Caraballeda aid center after a series of earthquakes destroyed his home in La Guaira. (Photo by Javier Campos/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Local Partners, Local Food
When the first WCK international team arrived, restaurant partners and volunteers were preparing ready-to-eat meals.
Within hours of the earthquake, the organization opened the network it had built through previous humanitarian work in Venezuela, including the migrant crisis and responses to Hurricanes Julia and Beryl.
“On the morning of the 25th, we were delivering sandwiches,” said de Belleroche, who was leading the ground response.
Those existing relationships, he says, have allowed the organization to start feeding people quickly and adapt to changing needs by the hour.
The organization now serves about 10,000 meals a day, from hot meals to ready-to-eat meals including arepas, sandwiches, perros calientes, cachitos, carne guisada, meatballs in sauce, and boiled plantains, all prepared by our restaurant partners.
Among them is Rêverie, a modern seafood restaurant in Caracas, which prepared hot meals for local organizations to provide to rescue workers. Madre Masa, a sourdough bakery in Caracas, sent hot meals to families in the hard-hit coastal community of Boca de Aroa in Falcon state.
Hot meals delivered by WCK partner Rêverie.
Central Kitchen of the World
The response is also receiving external support from Venezuela. Andrés pledged $1 million through his Long Tables Fund, while Hard Rock International, through the Hard Rock Heals Foundation and Hard Rock Bet, donated $60,000 to fund about 15,000 meals.
Hard Rock Cafe Caracas prepares and serves 1,000 fresh meals per day as a distribution partner.
WCK expects to increase between 20,000 and 30,000 meals a day as more kitchens and food trucks come online, de Belleroche said.
Mid-World Kitchen Model
The core of World Central Kitchen’s mission is to give people food they feel familiar with.
“When we go to a place, I’m not the one who cooks the burgers,” said de Belleroche. “I’m the contact with local chefs, local restaurants. “They tell us what their community eats, and we help them cook a lot.”
That philosophy has defined the nonprofit since José Andrés founded it after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Instead of relying on outside food operations, World Central Kitchen works with local restaurants, suppliers, and volunteers, providing fresh food while helping local economies recover.
Since its inception, it has provided more than 600 million meals in disasters and social crises around the world, from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
In Venezuela, that model is changing as needs change. Restaurant partners in Caracas are cooking for nearby communities, food trucks are providing shelters and distribution points, and a larger kitchen is being built near La Guaira to bring food preparation closer to the most affected communities.
At the José María Vargas Stadium, one of the largest shelters, the number of people increased from 1,200 to 1,750 in one day, forcing the non-profit organization to send more food immediately.
“We have a great team that follows all the ever-changing requirements,” said de Belleroche.
The diners will be first responders, displaced families, hospital workers, people waiting in the rubble for news of loved ones, and emergency crews. At rescue sites, volunteers distribute water and ice to workers working in the unrelenting heat.
“We don’t make a difference,” he said. “We feed everyone.”
World Central Kitchen has been delivering arepas prepared by our restaurant partner in Caracas. Arepas—a delicious, traditional Venezuelan corn cake—are more than just food; they symbolize comfort, resilience, and home for the Venezuelan people during these difficult times.
Central Kitchen of the World
Food is Hope
For de Belleroche, food is about more than feeding people.
He says: “Food is hope. “Food is pleasure. It listens to food. Food gives hope to desperate people in these times.”
That same sentiment was echoed by Andrés in a recent post on X, where he shared a video of rescue worker Jeremy Vargas eating an arepa after a day helping clear debris in La Guaira. “One bite can mean a lot,” wrote Andrés. “Time to relax. It’s a message that someone cares. In these tough times, comfort food can mean the world.”
De Belleroche says those moments of care often extend beyond the food itself.
She remembers meeting a woman at the shelter in La Guaira who told her and her colleagues that she had lost two children and was still looking for two more.
“We had a lot of things to do, but we stopped what we were doing because it was very important to listen,” he said. “Sometimes comfort is more important than food. People need someone to listen to them.”
He says those conversations are part of the job like cooking and serving food. But with thousands of people still displaced and the recovery just beginning, there is little sign that demand will ease anytime soon.
For now, he expects the surgery to last for weeks, with no set end date.
“We know where we’re going, but we don’t know when we’re going home,” he said. “I don’t think it will be less than one month.”
As major humanitarian organizations expand their operations, WCK expects that its emergency role will gradually fade. But the need for food is still there.
Already facing years of economic hardship, fragile public services, and widespread aid needs, Venezuela now faces another major challenge after the earthquake. For families who have lost homes, loved ones, and any sense of normalcy, fresh food cannot undo the damage. But it can provide comfort, restore some measure of dignity, and remind people that they are not forgotten.
