Gaza's Community Kitchens Struggle for Essential Supplies Amid Ceasefire

Tue Nov 25 2025 20:36:29 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Despite signs of relief with a ceasefire, Gaza's community kitchens are facing severe shortages in essential food items, impacting the quality of meals prepared for the needy.

As Gaza continues to recover from the recent conflict, community kitchens, like Anera's in al-Zuwayda, strive to provide essential meals to thousands. However, missing items such as proteins and fresh vegetables hinder their efforts to improve nutrition for the affected population. The situation remains critical, as many families still rely solely on these kitchens for their daily sustenance amid ongoing humanitarian challenges.

Garlic simmers in huge metal pots heated over open wood fires and set up in a long line. Cooks add canned tomatoes and peppers with handfuls of spices, stirring the sauce with giant spoons. What is being prepared here is not just lunch, it is a lifeline.

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) opened this community kitchen in al-Zawayda in central Gaza after the ceasefire began six weeks ago. The US humanitarian organisation has another kitchen in al-Mawasi in the south of the strip, which the BBC visited in early May. Back then, two months into an Israeli blockade, preventing the entry of all food and other goods, stocks were dwindling. Now, with more food allowed to enter, the situation has improved.

Each day, Anera feeds a hot meal to more than 20,000 people. We have moved from using 15 pots in the past, and now we increased to up to 120 pots in a day, targeting more than 30 internally displaced people's camps, says team leader Sami Matar. We're serving more than 4,000 families compared to just 900 families six months ago. Access to food has been a constant concern since the start of the war in October 2023, with Israel heavily restricting supplies allowed through Gaza's crossings.

This has exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation. Famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August and projected to spread to other areas of the strip. The UN continues to call for more aid to be allowed in.

But while Anera manages to get access to more food, vital ingredients missing to improve people's diets include fresh vegetables and essential proteins like meat. We are mostly confined to cooking just three types of meals in a week: rice, pasta, and lentils, says Mr. Matar. Those essentials are not allowed to enter Gaza for humanitarian aid distribution.

The UN reports that a quarter of households in Gaza are eating just one meal daily. Local markets are coming back to life but food prices remain high, making it challenging for families to afford basic necessities. With the onset of cold, wet weather, life is getting harder for many displaced individuals reliant on community kitchens for food.

The future hope is very simple, Mr. Matar says. People want to live in a safe secure place and be able to cook a hot meal for their children with love and dignity.