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Tuesday, March 24th, 2020

José Andrés: We Have a Food Crisis Unfolding Out of Sight

Author:     José Andrés
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     March 22, 2020
 Link: José Andrés: We Have a Food Crisis Unfolding Out of Sight
Stephan:   It is my view that all these kitchen and restaurant workers who have been laid off, ought to be hired for a kind of modern WPA program to cook food for the poor, the elderly, children, the disabled, in restaurant kitchens the government rented for the duration, so that all those Americans who now face a food crisis, as well as the workers themselves, would be taken care of, and remain productive. If we had a decent human being as president that might have happened. But, of course, it hasn't and won't. Instead, people like José Andrés, Chef and Owner of ThinkFoodGroup and founder of World Central Kitchen have stepped up, as they have done again and again, to meet the need. I think Andrés should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

José Andrés, Chef/Owner of ThinkFoodGroup and founder of World Central Kitchen

Writing in the middle of two devastating cholera pandemics in the early 1800s, the great French culinary thinker Brillat-Savarin articulated a truth we urgently need to grasp today: “The destiny of nations depends on how they feed themselves.”

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to create both a public health and economic catastrophe. But we cannot afford to ignore the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding out of sight.

Our fate as a nation depends on how we feed our most vulnerable citizens through this crisis. If our leaders step up now with federal aid, food can be the solution — supporting millions of jobs while also feeding millions of people in desperate need.

There is historical precedent for spending federal dollars to preserve jobs and serve the public: the Works Progress Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Over eight years, the W.P.A. put more than eight million Americans to work, building schools, hospitals and vital infrastructure. Today we […]

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