It's late to be getting around to naming our summer beneficiary for 2024. Not as much a matter of indecision as the odd grind this year has turned out to be. We've been relentlessly busy against a backdrop of deep uncertainty, if not injustice. Hard. So, beyond losing my mom on my 60th birthday last November, there's been a heavy feeling that I haven't quite shaken. It's surely partly grief, but also bewilderment: at the reversion to extreme Islamist rule in Afghanistan, at the never-ending run of mass shootings in the US, at the torrent of nonsense and villainy that flows from the mouth of Donald Trump. Add to those the ongoing wars in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza-Lebanon (and soon Iran?).
Which brings me to the NGO World Central Kitchen. Founded in 2010 to provide food relief to victims of an earthquake in Haiti, WCK has since responded to numerous humanitarian disasters as well as to two of the three wars mentioned above. Specifically, it was the loss of seven of their aid workers to an Israeli drone attack in April of this year that brought WCK to my attention.
Like EMERGENCY, an Italian NGO co-founded by a war surgeon to build and operate clinics and first aid posts in areas of need, World Central Kitchen was started by a chef and restauranteur to build and operate kitchens in the wake of calamities and in war zones. Both organizations run lean and close to the action. According to its website, WCK's founding idea was "When people are hungry, send in cooks", echoing Gino Strada's "Il mondo dovrebbe essere così: chi ha bisogno va aiutato."
Poggiosole's gross August 2024 receipts were €17,715. As has been our practice of charitable giving since 2021, this year we've donated 5% of that total to WCK (read about past summer beneficiaries here, here and here). Thoughtfully, WCK provides the option of making one's donation "in memory of". I named my mom Lilia Ghelli, who cooked for me and my father daily for decades.
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