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Saying that “today we face another type of disaster,” chef, humanitarian, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee José Andrés is set to open a kitchen in Washington, D.C., to feed federal workers and families who are in desperate need due to Donald Trump’s shutdown. The kitchen’s central location, José Andrés noted, has a “double meaning.”
“We are opening a kitchen at the Navy Memorial,” he said in a video posted to Twitter, “right on Pennsylvania Avenue, between … Congress … and the White House.” Saying that federal workers can eat there or take food home, he hopes “it’ll be a call to action to our senators and congressmen, and especially President Trump, to make sure we end this moment in the history of America where families are about to go hungry.”
Through his World Central Kitchen, the chef has fed Americans in California, Puerto Rico, and Texas following a series of devastating natural disasters. One recent effort has fed vulnerable migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border. The chef’s latest move, however, will take him just steps from the White House, which is responsible for a lot of this suffering.
“Today, we face another type of disaster emergency in the United States—more than 800,000 federal workers are without a job,” he explained about the administration’s shutdown. “We believe that no person should have to go through the pain of not knowing what to feed the children, so we’re opening a kitchen.”
The chef’s kitchen will be located at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and will be operational from 11 AM to 6 PM beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 16. “We should always come together as we the people, as Americans, bipartisan, Republicans and Democrats, all Americans,” Andrés said. “World Central Kitchen will be there for all Americans.”