‘This is an emergency’: José Andrés to open relief kitchen for federal workers during shutdown

‘This is an emergency’: José Andrés to open relief kitchen for federal workers during shutdown
José Andrés, #ChefsforFeds, government shutdown, food relief, disaster relief, ThinkFoodGroup, President Trump, Congress, World Central Kitchen
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Chef José Andrés feeds rescue workers during the recent wildfires in California. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters) By Tim Carman Tim Carman Reporter focusing on national food issues; critic covering affordable and under-the-radar restaurants in the D.C. area. Email Bio Follow January 14 at 5:00 PM José Andrés, chef, restaurateur and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, will focus his humanitarian efforts on his hometown this week, when his nonprofit organization launches a relief kitchen to feed furloughed federal workers in Washington. The decision to open a food kitchen only steps away from the White House and the U.S. Capitol is both practical and symbolic, Andrés said during a phone interview from Puerto Rico today. Practically, the free #ChefsforFeds kitchen will feed federal workers and their families during the partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week. In this sense, the operation in downtown Washington will not be too far removed from the food relief that World Central Kitchen - the organization that Andrés launched after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti - has offered in Puerto Rico, Houston, Florida, North Carolina, Tijuana, Guatemala and other locales where people have suffered after natural or man-made disasters. “I believe it’s an emergency,” Andrés told The Washington Post about the partial federal shutdown. “I believe these people are going to be suffering, and we are a food relief organization.” Big news! We will open a kitchen on Pennsylvania Ave this week to join private sector effort to feed federal employees during the shutdown. It’s only fair to feed Americans in need! #ChefsForFeds 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳🥘 Follow @WCKitchen for more details! pic. PRBtlaNug6- José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) January 14, 2019 But on another level, the relief kitchen on Pennsylvania Avenue NW - the site is currently a test kitchen for the chef’s ThinkFoodGroup, which is donating the space for the cause - is a symbolic display designed to spark political dialogue to end the shutdown, which is in its 24th day. In a Twitter video announcing the D.C. initiative, Andrés said he hoped the kitchen would motivate the government to act. [José Andrés is nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, congressman confirms] “I hope it will be a call to action to our senators and congressmen, and especially President Trump, to make sure that we end this moment in the history of America, where families are about to go hungry,” Andrés said. “We should always come together as we the people, as Americans, bipartisan.” In the interview with The Post, Andrés said his relief kitchen “sends a message that we’re here for the people. It sends a message that our leaders should come together and find common ground.” As such, Andrés said, he will institute a policy for any politician who tries to turn the #ChefsforFeds kitchen into a grandstanding opportunity. World Central Kitchen, he said, will warmly accept any politico who wants to volunteer at the temporary kitchen,