NH's 'common man' mourns death of aid workers in Gaza
Apr. 5—Alex Ray didn't know any of the seven humanitarian aid workers who were killed in a military strike in Gaza that the Israeli military has called a "misidentification."
But Ray knows plenty of people like those volunteers from World Central Kitchen, who donate their time and talents to feed people in places hit by natural disasters and, more recently, war. Ray, the founder of the popular Common Man family of restaurants, has worked by their side.
World Central Kitchen's operational model is based on training local people to make and serve food to the population in a disaster area, Ray said. "They were hugely organized, well-organized," he said. "Happy people."
"They were magic at bulk-making food," he said.
WCK volunteers are "givers," Ray said. "Those are the best people you can find."
Ray and his life partner, Lisa Mure, saw that firsthand when they joined a WCK effort in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019. Two years later, they worked with a WCK team after terrible tornadoes touched down in Kentucky.
Even before that, for years Ray felt called to help feed people in disaster zones. He worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, in Haiti after an earthquake and in Puerto Rico after another hurricane.
Ray was familiar with WCK's work, and they often worked in tandem to provide food aid. Their paths finally crossed in 2019, after a hurricane devastated the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.
Ray and Mure flew down to help. They walked into the building where WCK was setting up and said they wanted to volunteer. "What do you do?" someone asked.
"I come from New Hampshire. I own restaurants," Ray replied.
"Come tomorrow morning. You have a job," he was told.
At first, he was "opening number-10 cans, cases and cases of them," Ray said. Then he joined the assembly line, making sandwiches, before getting promoted to cook.
At the time, the WCK crew was shuttling food to Abaco by helicopter, but that was getting expensive. They asked if Ray could open a kitchen on Abaco.
It was challenging, but they pulled it off. "People would loan this guy their restaurants, with no gas and no hot water, but we still made food," he said. "We ran around town and found propane cans."
They were feeding residents, rescue workers and rebuilding crews. "We would cook food for 1,000 people in these four massive woks," Mure said.
The WCK workers they met on Abaco were young, energetic and dedicated, many of them coming from the hospitality industry, Mure said. "They love doing what they do," she said. "They love feeding people and giving them one of the most essential needs you have in a crisis."
'The world's loss'
After the war began in Ukraine three years ago, Ray started Common Man for Ukraine, working with Rotary groups in Poland to take care of orphans and other children whose lives have been disrupted by the war. They've delivered food, sleeping bags and generators, and provided trauma counseling and retreats.
"The people are in pain," Ray said. "We don't have anything to do with the war. We're taking care of the children who have lost their father or brother."
And once again, WCK was there, feeding refugees as they crossed into Poland. It was the organization's first humanitarian effort in a war zone.
Gaza was its second.
World Central Kitchen aid workers were in Israel soon after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, feeding Israelis who had been displaced. The group had only recently arrived to help refugees in Gaza, where starvation and famine threaten those who have fled south to escape the bombardment.
According to published reports, a WCK convoy of three vehicles was leaving a warehouse in Gaza after delivering pallets of food when it came under attack late Monday. News photos show the destroyed white vans, clearly marked with the aid group's colorful logo, including on the roofs.
The organization had notified the Israeli military of its movements, but something went terribly wrong.
World Central Kitchen posted photos of the seven "heroes" who were killed, including Jacob Flickinger, who was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and others from Palestine, Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom. Their driver and translator, a 25-year-old from Gaza, also died in the attack, according to published reports.
On wck.org, the organization paid tribute to the seven "beautiful souls" lost, stating, "Their smiles, laughter and voices are forever embedded in our memories."
"We are reeling from our loss. The world's loss," CEO Erin Gore wrote in the posted statement.
'It still happened'
WCK has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strike on the convoy, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "tragic case of our forces unintentionally harming innocent people in the Gaza Strip."
Ray said the deaths of these aid workers brings the reality of the Middle East war close to home.
"God bless WCK," he said. "They have done a good deed, but they had no idea that it would cost so much."
Mure said she was struck by images of the white WCK vans that were destroyed, so much like those in which they travel when they're working in Ukraine.
"We're in vans that are well-marked with Rotary groups and the Common Man for Ukraine signage," she said. "We also are in communication with the military so they know that we're there when we cross the border."
They work with orphanages and safe houses in western Ukraine, where it's safe, she said. "That's why the kids have been moved over there," she said.
But in Gaza, she said, "It's such tight geography that there's not a place you can get away to."
"Think about how thoughtful they were for their own safety, to put a logo on the roof," she said. "They were aware of the risk and they did everything they could. They communicated with the military, they planned things well, and it still happened."
Now the food aid WCK planned to deliver has been suspended. "It's a tragedy for the people in Gaza to be that in need of food, to have World Central Kitchen be able to come and figure things out, and to have it be so disrupted so quickly," Mure said. "It must have been difficult for the Palestinians to hear that that opportunity was gone so quickly."
'Mighty proud'
Mure said she's seen how the mostly young people who volunteer with WCK quickly "become a really close-knit group. "
"For them to lose seven people in their group, that's probably pretty devastating for them as an organization," she said.
Ray said he's "mighty proud" of the humanitarian effort the WCK workers were undertaking in Gaza. "They've given the ultimate," he said.
While they would have been aware of the risks, he said, "They feel they'll be safe by doing the right thing. And usually they are."
Ray said perhaps the death of these seven will do what the deaths of thousands since the war began has not. "It certainly is something I hope we look at and say how awful this war is," he said.
"It brings it home personally to us," Ray said. "Every person there is volunteering to help humanity."
These days, Ray thinks a lot about doing the right thing.
At 79, he's feeling his age. "It's memory mostly, and the use of words," he said.
He's determined to embrace the challenge with humor and grace.
Ray cherishes the memory of visiting an older friend for her birthday a few years back, and asking her how old she was. "She goes, 'I don't know and I don't care.' And she laughed," he recalled.
"That will be with me the rest of my life."
'Still worthy'
After a long, successful career in the restaurant business, Ray is stepping back, letting his loyal, longtime employees take on more leadership roles. He plans to devote his time and energy to helping others, especially those in the most terrible circumstances.
Like the children his organization supports in Ukraine.
He and Mure are leaving for Ukraine on April 15, their 10th trip to that country.
"I am going through a change of life, and the only thing that's keeping me not to be in the dark is this thing in Ukraine, because I feel like I'm still worthy," Ray said.
But you don't have to go that far away to help someone, he said. "Right in Plymouth, New Hampshire, there are ladies that need visitors, to read a book or wash the dishes," he said. "It's exactly the same thing.
"There's people in the hospital, in nursing homes. There's people in bed all day long. Go see them," he urged.
"Even saying hello to people on the sidewalk," he said. "I'm really focusing on that more all the time."
In the end, he said, "It's just being a good human.
"I'm working on it," he said.
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For more information on Ray's Ukrainian aid effort, go to commonmanforukraine.org/
