José Andrés And His Team Have Served One Million Meals In Puerto Rico So Far
Disaster relief superstar José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen have served a staggering one million meals in Puerto Rico to displaced residents, volunteers, and medical staff on the island in the three weeks since Hurricane Maria struck.
Since touching down in Puerto Rico 21 days ago, the humanitarian chef has used social media to advocate for the struggling U.S. territory while using his own resources. Andrés has set up 15 kitchens throughout the island with over 500 volunteers and has partnered with 10 food trucks to provide hot food to people in the areas that are still without electricity.
In a spot of good news that he posted to his Twitter, chef Andrés announced that he along with World Central Kitchen have served their millionth meal to the people of Puerto Rico.
After 3 wks,15 kitchens, 500+volunteers, today @WCKitchen #ChefsForPuertoRico served 1millionth meal in Puerto Rico! https://t.co/tPdzgOMNfk pic.twitter.com/ELwVhiNGQ7
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) October 17, 2017
"We are about to reach one million meals cooked by the men and women of Puerto Rico. Big day. I love you all!" he said to the camera.
It was only a week ago that his charity, World Central Kitchen, estimated that he had served 350,000 meals — and at the time of his arrival, the chef said he simply hoped to serve 200 meals daily. His can-do attitude is creating a ripple effect. The U.S. Department of Defense reported that about two dozen Puerto Rican airmen used their days off to volunteer to deliver food and water to as many as 1,000 people in the hard-to-reach mountainous interior of the island.
If you want to donate to Andrés' efforts, please check out World Central Kitchen.
To donate to Hurricane Maria survivors and aid efforts, you can visit any of the following:
United for Puerto Rico