This Celebrity Chef Has Helped Feed Over 1 Million People in Puerto Rico
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti back in 2010, chef José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen with the belief that food can be an agent of change. Together with a group of chefs working together to personally eliminate hunger and poverty, Andrés’ organization has expanded globally and when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September, the Spanish chef once again sprung to action, setting up satellite kitchens across Puerto Rico, with the largest operation headquartered in San Juan’s Coliseo.
Together with his network of #ChefsForPuertoRico, they set up 15 kitchens — powered by the help of 500 volunteers — and partnered with 10 food trucks to deploy more than 120,000 meals to people in need on a daily basis, with a reach of 78 municipalities across the island.
Today, October 18, it was announced that World Central Kitchen has fed one million people in Puerto Rico.
Andrés' network of chefs include many from Puerto Rico, including Jose Enrique (Jose Enrique Restaurant), Enrique Piñeiro (Mesa 364), Victor Rosado (Treehouse), Wilo Bennett (Pikayo) and Manolo Martinez (Paellas y algo más). The team also utilized food trucks to help distribute meals to hard-to-reach areas and partners include Ocean Deli, High Kitchen, Lemon Submarine, Pisco Labis, El Churry, Yummy Dumplings, Peko Peko, Acai On The Go, The Meatball Company, Dame Un Bite and Instituto de Banca y Comercio.
Check out the chef and his team in action in the video below.
To further support this effort, please visit worldcentralkitchen.org/donate.
All photos courtesy of José Andrés via Facebook.
