Recently the World Central Kitchen (WCK) hit a milestone, they have served over 100M+ meals. Led by Chef Jose Andres WCK is about serving meals after disaster strikes, their core motto brings tears to my heart, “Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people may eat, we will be there – we must be there.” This organization demonstrates the way through this time of transformation. It is worth your time, attention, and if you can, consider a donation. Giving yourself to others and your community. Yes. giving is receiving.
Food is a universal human right. WCK is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. We build resilient food systems with locally led solutions.
Feeding the soul and nourishing the body goes hand in hand. Where have we forgotten to feed folks who are hungry? Hungry for food, respect, love, honor, joy. Taking loving action when the call is great or small is the necessary work. There are many factors, moments where a realization strikes and Chef Jose Andres through his life, his thoughts, his experiences, his gifts, his talents and his innate work, to feed folks, amplifies through the heart of the necessary work.
SERVING NOURISHMENT TO THE MANY
WCK serving thousands of hot meals & sandwiches in response to Hurricane Ian brought this picture of a young person smiling while working to bring supplies to the chefs. It is what nourishment, community care, mutual aid does, bring a safe, collective giving what they have, from the heart and soul of our connections. Chef Jose Andres met the need in the moment, answering the call.
Consider the possibilities of what you can do. In community we heal. We have more than enough to solve the issues of the 21st Century. It is in our willingness to align in love, to take action full of grace and to be a blessing in the work we contribute to. We know what needs to be done to make things better. We are here to share the gifts we’ve been given. Every problem comes bearing a solution. It is in this moment of grace we grow. If you are reading this consider what might be the necessary work to love our neighbors.
Giving voice to the voiceless. Feeding the hungry. Giving water to the thirsty. Giving love when and where it is needed most. Is the least we can do. Another way is possible. Expect more. See the light in everyone you meet and if there is something you can do, perhaps, it is the time to do it. To teach is to demonstrate. It is through our actions we showcase what we are aligned. Show through your actions, your loving. Love your neighbor because you are your neighbor. Let’s make sure loving actions shine through the darkness. Let’s not talk about what isn’t working and share what is.
ORIGINS OF WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN
Many things lead to the birth, in 2010, World Central Kitchen, began with its response to Haiti. In every evolution of loving action there are moments that lead to the breakthrough moment. Divine suggestions of synchronicity where God flows through and plants seeds. Seeds of possibilities. Chef Jose Andres talks about one of his restaurants opening in a space where Clara Harlowe Barton, worked/lived, Clara Barton, a hospital nurse in the American Civil War who began telling the families what happened and where they could be found. A woman who started creating connection through information. “Your son is wounded, your husband died, we need support here, supplies gathered and sent there.”
She provided for those in need, tended to the wounded, supported, distributing supplies, medical and taught herself and others to care for folks wounded, lost, and displaced from the war. In the end, life brought her into her purpose, she spoke, lectured and taught opening/founding the American Red Cross and a champion for what is possible. Chef Jose Andres calls out this synchronicity as a seed he would carry in his heart for what was possible.
“Even in the richest country, there are terrible class inequities.” The world is a beautiful place. The few cannot be hoarders when the many are hungry. A world out of balance is a world on its way to collapse.
LOVE ACTIVISM IN CHEF JOSE ANDRES WORDS
“Pealing potatoes with ex convicts. Washing lettuce with the homeless taught me the complexity of life. It taught me to listen.”
“WCK came out of the inaction from years before during Katrina from my sitting in my living room watching 100s of people in the dome hungry and thirsty and I didn’t do anything.”
“I thought, I am a cook that feeds the few, but I have the talent to feed the many.”
“With Haiti. That is the moment that I had to act and I was called to show up and listen.”
“Willingness to learn. Sometimes we must learn to be helpful. Learning is the experience of life. In the process you listen to the voices of the voiceless. Why do we not listen to those who feel alone during emergencies.”
“This is the empathy that makes World Central Kitchen what it is.”
“Together we the people, next to the people in their darkest hour, and this power of the people. Those that do not think like you are not your enemy, they have a different point of view that allows us to feel the power of collaboration.”
“Everybody wants to put their demons away, and bring out their better angels. There is so much goodness, we are opening a little window into the heart of the matter during the darkest hour.”
“The mission was simple. Jesus showed up. Nothing goes as planned. If we plan too much, then nothing will go as planned…. In the process the solutions arrive.”
“Women feed the world. I would like to give women the respect, honor and power as the channel for this next movement of nourishing, restores the soul, and rebirths a thriving world. The first act of love, the mother feeds the children. A moment we are unconscious, a moment we don’t remember, that connection. A mother feeding every one on earth, that moment of love, that moment on earth, that moment of nourishing the world. The mother, the maternal, shows up… give the power of nourishment of the soul, giving voice to the voices, more power to the powerless and these moments we receive the nourishment of the heart. It is love. Giveback all the love we received with love.”
THE POWER OF WOMEN TO TRANSFORM THE 21ST CENTURY FOR GOOD
More respect, more love, more. Chef Jose Andres wife Patricia Fernández de la Cruz gave of her family, her finances and her heart to found World Central Kitchen. We are grateful for the work, the spirit, the ideas and the actions for community care and mutual aid to rebuild the foundation of health and wellness. Women are 50% of the population and have given birth to 100% of the population. The change. The transformation. Is the reconnection to this energy.
Liberation through the act of goodness and never through the act of fear. It is how we move forward from here. Inspiration is done in community, through simple actions. Keep on going. It is our work to listen, to show up and to allow the collaboration of the heart to thrive.
Please reach out if you need loving support, we can add you into our daily prayers. Please consider the possibility of what love aligned in faith can do. Miracles are happening everywhere in every way. This story is perhaps the story of sharing the gifts we’ve been given allow for the work to be done through the collective heart.
May you be lifted above any circumstance in the full radiance of your being.
Love, Mel
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