Jose Andres Returns to Puerto Rico to Cook Thanksgiving Dinner
The chef will serve up 40,000 meals to the island’s neediest.
Image: José Andrés/Twitter
As if 2.3 million meals weren’t enough.
After Hurricane Maria wiped out much of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, José Andrés arrived to start cooking meals with his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen. By mid-October, the organization had served up its millionth meal, and on November 1st, that number had reached 2.3 million. Now, the chef is back on the island, and he’s helping to cook 40,000 Thanksgiving dinners for the US territory’s neediest inhabitants.
Using resources from his Chefs for Puerto Rico team, as well as kitchens from Marriott hotels, the World Central Kitchen has been preparing Thanksgiving meals of “roasted turkey, rich gravy, mashed root veggies, creamy sweet corn and more” to be boxed up and delivered to harder-to-reach areas of the island.
Andrés and his organization will remain in Puerto Rico at least “until Christmastime,” most likely depending on the status of funding coming from government contracts.
On Tuesday, Andrés posted a video to Twitter sharing his Thanksgiving wishes for Americans everywhere.
“I only want every one of you to really give thanks for the amazing men and women in America and around the world,” he said, because “they are working hard to make sure that others enjoy life the same way that you and I enjoy life.”
So show your acknowledgement before you dig in on Thursday by being thankful for the work of chef Andrés and his organization. Or, if you want to be more concrete with your thanks-giving, you can show it with your checkbook (if you have one… #millenial) by donating to the World Central Kitchen and Chefs for Puerto Rico.
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