The chef who became popular for his humanitarian feeding efforts, Jose Andres, has served more than 300,000 meals for the people in the Bahamas.
This month, Andres was able to fly thousands of oranges and sandwiches in the Bahamas by helicopter. He’s planning to fly a lot more foods to the island in the coming days. As of now, his priority is to serve free meals to people in Abaco, where hunger is currently rampant.
Though the chef and his team have served their target meals, they are still working to produce more since a lot of evacuees are still suffering from hunger and hopelessness.
Jose Andres has brought the concept of small plates dining in America. He owns restaurants in various states such as Las Vegas, Florida and Los Angeles. He’s also won innumerable awards which made him one of the most influential people in the world, according to Time Magazine.
Apart from his cooking prowess and smart business concepts; however, Andres has a larger-than-life vision. He wants to use his cooking skills to feed the hungry, particularly the victims of natural disasters.
In the outskirt of Hurricanes Florence, Maria, and the California Wildfires, Andres had given millions of free meals to the victims. With the help of his non-profit organization, World Central Kitchen, he’s able to realize his vision and continue working on more humanitarian missions.
Andres and his team are now focused on feeding people in the Bahamas which was hit by the powerful Hurricane Dorian. “We are cooking for the people, and plan on ramping that up even more and more”, the nonprofit’s relief administration manager, Zami Frankcom, said in a video.
Andres has also been active in social media, asking for additional help for their feeding efforts. According to the check, they need free helicopters to bring more meals to the island.
The team has been working non-stop, preparing and serving meals to the victims. “We’re an NGO, we’re trying to be saving as many lives as we can, one meal at a time,” Andres said.
He also said that their goal in the island is to lessen the problems of the local government: “That’s what we are trying to do, to create this system of feeding so this problem goes away, and they can take care of everything else.”
Though it is difficult to conduct relief operations because of the severe damages on the island, Andres believes that with empathy, they will be able to get things done. “We don’t have any technique that is very difficult or very special. What we have is a lot of empathy,” he said.
At present, more help and financial assistance have been provided for the hurricane victims. D.C. restaurants and bars are also raising money under the #dcdrinksforbahamas fundraiser. These bars and restaurants are going to serve a Caribbean-inspired drink until the end of October. The proceeds will be donated to the World Central Kitchen and other non-profit organizations like Team Rubicon and Global Giving.
With empathy and unison, Andres’ mission will not be that hard to accomplish. To follow his humanitarian efforts, please visit his organization’s website and Facebook page.