Celebrity chef Jose Andres has been feeding hungry refugees at Ukraine’s borders
The Spanish-American chef and his NGO, World Central Kitchen, has been serving hot meals to thousands of refugees fleeing into Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres and his NGO World Central Kitchen serving hot meals for refugees at the border of Poland and Ukraine. (Photo: Twitter)
He’s helped feed people who’ve dealt with natural and man-made disasters around the world, and celebrity chef Jose Andres is now doing the same for those affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 52-year-old Spanish-American is at the border of Poland and Ukraine, where he and his NGO, World Central Kitchen (WCK), are “delivering meals” such as soup, hot chicken stew and apple pie to refugees fleeing the situation. To date, WCK has served more than 35,000 meals in Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary.
On Saturday (Feb 26), he posted a short video on Twitter with the caption: “People of the World… Like you, I am distraught watching Ukraine under attack. We must come together as a force for good!”
Andres, an award-winning chef and restaurateur, has been regularly posting updates with the hashtag #ChefsForUkraine. On Feb 28, he tweeted: “It is below freezing tonight & I am meeting so many refugees, families who are escaping & don’t know what’s next…We will do our best not to let them down!”
A short video explained how WCK has set up stations at different exit points from Ukraine. He also underlined the NGO’s plans, which will come in phases and include providing meals at refugee facilities in the neighbouring countries and eventually establishing community kitchens in Ukraine once the fighting has stopped.
According to WCK’s chief executive, Nate Mook, the NGO has already entered the second phase of its plans, providing hot meals for people at shelters and pop-up facilities.
In addition, at the Rava-Ruska and Shehyni borders, WCK has partnered with Caritas nuns to provide meals for the refugees. The organisation is also expecting additional aid from the United Nations and the World Food Program.
In his latest update on Mar 1, Andres shared his team’s efforts in Moldova, another neighbouring country, where Ukrainian refugees at the Chisinau Airport were served “baked chicken with pasta, tomato salad and bread from local restaurants”.
Andres formed WCK in response to the Haiti earthquake in 2010. It has since organised meals in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Peru, Cuba, Uganda, Cambodia, and now at the at Ukrainian-Poland border. In 2015, the chef was awarded the National Humanities Medal by the US government in 2015 for his work with WCK.
