WordPress CMS Migration for World Central Kitchen

Powering Real-Time Humanitarian Response With Smarter Technology

Industry

Global Nonprofit
Humanitarian

Services

Platform Migration,
WordPress Development,
Integrations,
Training.

World Central Kitchen (WCK), founded by Chef José Andrés, has become one of the most visible forces in global disaster relief, serving meals and delivering hope on the front lines, in communities facing their hardest moments.

As their operations expanded across continents, WCK needed a CMS that could keep up with their digital communications strategy. Their Prismic platform no longer supported the speed or flexibility required for real-time, multilingual publishing during high-traffic periods. They partnered with WDG to modernize the digital infrastructure with a system that was secure, scalable, and built for a global editorial team.

CHALLENGE

The Digital Roadblock: A CMS That Couldn’t Keep Pace

WCK’s website averaged over 520,000 monthly page views across English and Spanish versions, with major traffic spikes following humanitarian deployments. Managing content during these critical moments was often manual and inefficient.

The communications team needed a robust content management system that would streamline publishing, improve editorial workflows, and integrate smoothly with key third-party systems including Salesforce, Classy, and Mailgun. The new solution also had to ensure ADA accessibility, maintain SEO value, and sustain rapid content updates in high-pressure, time-sensitive situations.

[WDG’s] expertise, responsiveness, and steady communication helped turn what could have been a very stressful few months into a smooth, confident transition.

We’re grateful for the collaboration and look forward to a long, productive partnership as we move into the next phase of our work.

Richard McLaws, Senior Content Manager

approach

Engineering a Seamless Migration for a Mission That Can’t Pause

WDG partnered with WCK to deliver a full CMS migration and platform modernization from Prismic to WordPress, designed for scalability, performance, and ease of use. The project followed a phased approach to ensure continuity and precision during the transition.

Laying the Foundation for a More Resilient CMS

WDG led an in-depth discovery process to audit existing content structures, editorial workflows, and technical dependencies. The team facilitated CMS demos and analysis sessions to evaluate multiple platforms, ultimately recommending WordPress for its balance of scalability, editorial flexibility, and nonprofit-friendly ecosystem.

This phase also defined information architecture, user roles, and success criteria while mapping WCK’s 3,000+ content items and 8,600+ digital assets into a new, structured framework.

Rebuilding the Backend for Speed, Stability, and Editorial Ease

WDG implemented a WordPress instance configured with CI/CD pipelines, Git-based version control, and reusable component-based templates. The build mirrored WCK’s established design but introduced accessibility and mobile responsiveness improvements aligned with WCAG 2.1 standards.

With careful alignment between WDG’s technical team and WCK’s content team, we were able to reduce rework and improve their content fidelity during migration.

results

Faster Publishing. Stronger Workflows. A Site Ready for the Next Crisis.

Strengthening WCK’s Digital Ecosystem Through Seamless Integrations

WDG reconnected and optimized WCK’s digital ecosystem, ensuring seamless integrations with:

Salesforce
Classy
Mailgun
Google Tag Manager

Hotjar
Posthog
TikTok

Spanish-language translation support was added through a multilingual plugin, extending reach to new audiences while simplifying future localization workflows.

Moving 3,000+ Content Items With Zero Editorial Disruption

Custom migration scripts enabled partial automation of content transfer, complemented by manual validation for accuracy and SEO preservation through redirect mapping. The site underwent comprehensive QA across browsers and devices before a structured deployment from development → staging → production environments.

To support a successful knowledge transfer, WDG conducted recorded training sessions tailored to WCK’s editorial and communications staff, ensuring self-sufficiency in content management, page-building, and troubleshooting.

results

Faster Publishing. Stronger Workflows. A Site Ready for the Next Crisis.

The newly launched WordPress-powered wck.org provides WCK with a fast, flexible, and intuitive platform optimized for a global, bilingual audience. The CMS empowers editors to manage content confidently, coordinate updates during humanitarian responses, and sustain the organization’s digital growth for years ahead.

Early outcomes include: