The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019

BY TIM CARMAN

Nearly two years ago, José An-
drés and World Central Kitchen
found themselves battling bu-
reaucracy and the battered infra-
structure of P uerto Rico after Hur-
ricane Maria deli vered a Category
4 wallop to the island. Neither the
celebrity chef nor the small non-
profit organization would ever be
the s ame again.
More evidence of their lifestyle
change came over the Labor Day
weekend as Hurricane Dorian
hovered over the Bahamas and
slowly dismantled the island na-
tion, leaving at least seven people
dead, with fears of many more,
and countless buildings de-
stroyed. The storm first hit the
Abaco Islands in the northern Ba-
hamas on Sunday, bringing Cat-
egory 5 winds and slashing rains.
It was the largest storm on record
in the Bahamas.
Andrés and World Central
Kitchen landed in Nassau, the na-
tion’s capital, ahead of the storm
and began staging the relief ef-

forts as Dorian churned closer to

the islands. Andrés himself deliv-

ered a report from the island,

reminding viewers that he was

nowhere n ear the eye of the s torm,

which at that time was centered

above the Abaco Islands. The chef

had t o scream above the pounding

rains, which lashed his face and

drenched his c lothes.

“This is going to be one of the

biggest ever,” he says to the cam-

era. “Let’s pray for everybody in

Abaco.”

If the chef and his nonprofit

rewrote the textbook in 2017 on

how to respond to natural disas-

ters — feed the people hot or

homemade meals, not MREs; rely

on available resources, not just

those shipped from far away; al-

low the people to help feed them-

selves, not rely on outsiders —

they had to learn t hese lessons the

hard way in Puerto Rico: by on-

the-job training and improvisa-

tion. They activated any space

with electricity and water:

churches, restaurants, food

trucks, even the Coliseo de Puerto

Rico in San Juan. Andrés fre-

quently had to fight f or his p lace at

the table with the Federal Emer-

gency Management Agency and

other relief officials.

Two years later, those hassles

seemed like ancient history as the

2019 hurricane season saw its

worst storm yet, Hurricane

Dorian, batter the Bahamas over

the weekend before turning north

to start its trudge along the East

Coast of the United States. Ac-

cording to a map that Andrés

tweeted out, World Central Kitch-

en had more than a dozen poten-

tial sites on Abaco and Grand

Bahama islands to start feeding

people.

“If kitchens are destroyed, we

build one and cook in big paella

pans!” World Central Kitchen vol-

unteers did exactly that — cooked

in outdoor paella pans — after

Hurricane Michael flattened

much of the Florida Panhandle in

October.

On Tuesday afternoon, Andrés

tweeted a video from a pilot who

surveyed the damage on Abaco.

You can hear one person say that

several sites are “gone,” or buried

underwater. The chef added his

own commentary in the tweet, “I

am hoping to land there this after-

noon with sandwiches and fruit,

and @WCKitchen will try to es-

tablish relief kitchen[s] immedi-

ately.”

In s ome ways, Andrés a nd WCK

employees have become as much

reporters on the scene as first

responders, given their access to

disaster areas. They not only talk

about what food they’re prepar-

ing, and for whom, but about the

current conditions and the avail-

ability o f resources.

Andrés was not immediately

available for comment Tuesday,

but Tim Kilcoyne, director of chef

operations for World Central

Kitchen, sent around a video on

Twitter. He said volunteers on

Monday had prepared and deliv-

ered more than 1,000 ham-and-

cheese sandwiches t o those affect-

ed on Abaco.

“A lot of places were closed

yesterday, a lot o f stores,” Kilcoyne

said, while standing at a Bahamas

Food Services warehouse in Nas-

sau. The BFS facility “reopened

today, getting a ton of product. We

got apples and oranges.... We got

bread for o ur sandwiches, l ettuce.”

Volunteers were preparing

tuna sandwiches on Tuesday and

delivering them to the hungry on

Abaco via helicopter, Kilcoyne

said.

“We’ll be here,” Kilcoyne added.

“We have more teams coming

from Florida.... We will have lots

to report on and more images and

everything coming soon.”

In the two years since Maria hit

Puerto Rico, Andrés and World

Central Kitchen have embraced

their role a s first responders work-

ing to feed victims of natural dis-

asters. They have responded to

disasters of every stripe: They de-

ployed to the Venezuelan-Colom-

bian border during the power

struggle in Venezuela. They trav-

eled to California after the devas-

tating wildfires. They s et u p kitch-

ens in Indonesia after the earth-

quake and tsunami. They even

opened a relief kitchen in down-

town Washington to feed federal

workers during the partial gov-

ernment shutdown this year.

Andrés, World Central Kitchen

employees and volunteers have

prepared and served millions of

meals around the w orld.

In the process, World Central

Kitchen has grown from a small

organization, with total assets of

$119,000 i n 2016, to one with total

assets of $16.3 million in 2018,

according to World Central Kitch-

en’s financials. Andrés is up for a

Nobel Peace Prize, which will be

announced O ct. 11 in Oslo.

Not that the chef seems to be

paying much attention to honors.

He a nd t he World Central Kitchen

team have their hands full in the

Bahamas, while also tracking

Dorian to see if they need to set up

operations elsewhere in the

storm’s p ath.

[email protected]

Andrés’s nonprofit follows its Puerto Rico blueprint to feed Dorian victims

The

Reliable

Source

Helena Andrews-Dyer and Emily Heil

are away. Their column will resume

when they return.

JOSE JIMENEZ/GETTY IMAGES

Chef José Andrés sets up operations in Nassau Bahamas, as he plans to feed people on the Abaco

Islands, which were slammed by Hurricane Dorian, the largest storm on record to hit the Bahamas.

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