DC chef and humanitarian José Andrés took his nonprofit World Central Kitchen to the Ukraine-Poland border to offer hot meals to refugees.
On his Twitter page, the Spanish-American chef posted videos showing himself and the World Central Kitchen‘s feeding facility distributing food at the Ukrainian border in the bone-chilling cold.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led more than 500,000 Ukrainians to flee into neighboring countries so far.
Members of Andrés’ food nonprofit team have been scattered across the border in Poland, as well as in Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and south Ukraine.
People of the World…Reporting from the Ukraine border! This is one of the places @WCKitchen has hot meals. 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! #ChefsForUkraine pic.twitter.com/YiEemUfLlC
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) February 28, 2022
“We are contacting others. We are telling them, ‘Guys, there’s many ways to fight.’ Some people find us making sure that people are fed. And those are our people and we’re gonna be supporting them in many ways,” Andrés said in a video.
Andrés and his team are also visiting restaurants and bakeries in Ukrainian cities such as Lviv and offering them partnerships with the World Central Kitchen to feed both refugees fleeing the country and residents who stay.
Andrés’ nonprofit has delivered approximately 50 million meals in many countries since it was founded in 2010. It also provided millions of meals around the US during the coronavirus pandemic.
In February 2020, the World Central Kitchen team traveled to Japan to provide food to the people who were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship due COVID-19.
Last year, they prepared meals for first responders who worked during the US Capitol riot on January 6.
Andrés also provided around 100,000 free meals for Bahamians, who survived the Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, as well as residents of the Carolinas and Florida.