The time has finally come: hero chef José Andrés is leaving Puerto Rico. Andrés’s nonprofit World Central Kitchen has been in Puerto Rico for nearly a month to feed people after Hurricane Maria, which made landfall on September 20. In that time, the organization fed nearly 2 million people — more than any other relief group — with help from sandwich-making volunteers, pop-up paella kitchens, food trucks, and a network of #ChefsForPuertoRico. And now, because all good things must come to an end, Andrés and team are winding down those efforts, the New York Times reports.
According to the Times, Andrés will shut down World Central Kitchen’s primary kitchen at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, in the capital of San Juan, tomorrow. The chef made the stadium, Puerto Rico’s largest, his operation’s home base after first serving food out of chef Jose Enrique’s restaurant kitchen. Other World Central Kitchen pop-up kitchens will also close, but to to meet the needs of the hardest-hit areas, the organization is opening a new production facility at Vivo Beach Club in Carolina, just east of San Juan. Volunteers at the facility, which replaces the Coliseo, will prepare meals for daily delivery via food truck, according to a press release.
Per the Times, the remaining World Central Kitchen outposts will move away from sandwich deliveries and instead focus on serving hot food to the elderly, sick, and people in remote areas like Ponce, Humacoa, Naguabo, and Vieques. World Central Kitchen has already set up kitchens in some of these areas, but going forward, will rely on local chefs and churches to cook and serve meals with supplies from World Central Kitchen’s network, which includes companies like Goya.
Our amazing volunteers amazing production! @WCKitchen pic.twitter.com/VDGgZmc7zO
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) October 25, 2017
The move to hot food is strategic. Andrés says there’s now enough cold food on the island. He’s also wary of giving away too much free food, given that 89 percent of grocery stores and some restaurants have reopened. “An NGO has no right taking money away from business,” he says in the Times.
The Times report also reveals the amount of money World Central Kitchen’s own operation cost: As much as $400,000 a day during the busiest times, including transportation and hotel costs for chefs and staff flown in from his own restaurants, plus payment to food truck and kitchen owners.
And World Central Kitchen’s efforts won’t end completely. It signed at $10 million contract with FEMA to produce 120,000 meals a day for two weeks. Andrés, who has been critical of FEMA’s response, says the government organization has told him “they have this under control.”
Andrés is encouraging the government and other nonprofits to adopt a similar scaled-back, targeted approach to recovery efforts. As Andrés has mentioned before, for Puerto Rico to recover, Puerto Ricans must feed themselves and Puerto Rico’s economy. Now that they have the tools to do so, Andrés can head back to D.C.
• A Chef Will Wind Down His Crusade to Feed Puerto Rico [NYT]
• José Andrés and Team Have Served One Million Meals in Puerto Rico [E]
• @chefjoseandres [Twitter]