It’s the fourth day of my 12 Days of Charitable Giving for 2020. Readers have suggested deserving charities over the past few weeks, and I’ll be posting the results here. Today’s charity is World Central Kitchen.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) was started by Chef Jose Andres and his wife, Patricia. Years ago, they dreamed of an organization that would use food to empower communities and strengthen economies.
In 2020, Chef Andres and WCK sprang into action in communities around the United States and the world to meet the daily needs of families in need of a warm plate of food – and supported thousands of local restaurants in the process. They also responded to natural and manmade disasters in countries on five continents, from massive bushfires in Australia to a deadly explosion in Lebanon to devastating hurricanes in Central America.
They provide fresh, not pre-packaged – meals to those in need. “That means that not only are the recipients receiving help,” our nominator writes, “the farmers and community they live in are also receiving help.”
WCK has shown that there is no place too far or disaster too great for chefs to be there with a hot plate of food when it’s needed most.
During COVID, WCK has responded through their ChefsForAmerica program providing 30 million meals in 400 cities, using 2400 restaurants who received $117M in revenue at a time when they might have had to close their doors. And when it came time to vote, WCK stepped up with Chefs for the Polls, setting up stations in 250 cities across the US to be sure that no one would have to forgo voting in order to have a meal while spending those hours in lines. Between October 12 and November 3, they worked with 500 restaurants to provide 500,000 meals in 250 cities and 735 polling stations.
If you’ve heard of Chef Andres, you’re not alone. It feels like he’s everywhere, doing great work.
Our nominator first learned of this organization a few years ago, when she had the good fortune to be in the audience for a taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers and one of his guests was the amazing chef Jose Andres. She writes, “Besides being entertaining, his passion for feeding the hungry was so remarkable.”
So how can you help? To make a one time or monthly donation by bank transfer or credit card, click over to the website.
You can also donate via Paypal: https://wck.org/paypal
If you’d like to mail a check, please make your check payable to World Central Kitchen, Inc. and mail to: World Central Kitchen, Attn: Erin Gore, 655 New York Ave NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20001. However, WCK notes that due to USPS delays and remote work policies, there have been significant delays in their ability to process donations by check. If you’d like to donate by wire transfer instead, please contact donations@wck.org to inquire about details.
For federal income tax purposes, if you plan to claim a deduction for a cash contribution, you’ll want to keep a record of the donation. Ideally, the organization will provide a written record with the name of the charity, date, and amount of the contribution.
And this year, don’t forget that taxpayers who make cash donations of up to $300 before December 31, 2020, are now eligible for a charitable deduction when they file in 2021 – even if they don’t itemize. As part of the CARES Act, the special $300 deduction is available to taxpayers who choose to take the standard deduction rather than itemizing their deductions.
WCK accepts donations via stock, wire transfer, PayPal, check, and donor-advised funds. For full details on other ways to give, please visit: https://wck.org/other-ways-to-give/
Do your homework. As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. A search using the IRS’ new Tax Exempt Organization Search (formerly Select Check) reveals that WCK is on the list.
To find out more about the work of the organization, check out their website, like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter or Instagram.
Remember: Readers nominate their favorite charities to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving, and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the organizations. So be generous but be smart: Do your homework.
For more on making charitable donations, click here.
For other charities in the series, see:
Thank You.