#ChefsForAmerica
WCK began its COVID-19 relief efforts by deploying its food first responders to distribute fresh meals to cruise ship passengers under quarantine in Japan and Oakland and is now active in dozens of cities providing over 160,000 fresh meals every day to children and families, seniors, and frontline medical workers.
Traditional safety nets like school feeding programs, city services, and food banks are struggling to meet basic needs. Seniors, who are isolated for their safety, are unable to access meal services. Meanwhile, the country’s hospital workers are more stretched than ever before.
WCK is now activating restaurants to help meet this demand by providing jobs for their staff and meals for those in need--Chefs For America is making a key connection, between people who need meals and restaurant workers and drivers who need to earn a living.
Meals Served as of 4/17:
What are we doing?
1. Delivering Fresh Meals
WCK is working across America to safely distribute individually packaged fresh meals in communities that need support, for children and families to pick up and take home, as well as delivered to seniors who cannot venture outside. We're now serving tens of thousands of meals daily in New York City, Washington DC, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Newark, Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami, Puerto Rico, and USVI — with more to come.
2. Putting Restaurants Back to Work
WCK is in the process of integrating into our food relief efforts restaurants and meal delivery companies so we have large-scale, distributed reach, while also supporting the industries that are suffering. At the same time thousands of restaurants are closing and laying off workers, there exists massive demand to feed children, seniors, and at-risk populations. It’s time to put restaurants back to work in service of our country.
#ChefsForAmerica is evolving into a coalition of restaurants and tech companies working together to provide meals to Americans that need assistance. This nationwide, scalable effort will feed those in need, as well as guarantee a reliable and recurring stream of revenue for restaurants that are prepared to safely produce nutritious meals — and provide income to delivery drivers.
We are currently piloting this initiative and will share more details soon!
3. Feeding Frontline Healthcare Workers
The idea is simple: Support local hospital clinicians who are working in wartime-like conditions and support local restaurants who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. WCK has joined forces with initiatives across America to deliver fresh, hot meals to hospitals and clinics fighting on the frontlines. Click the links below to learn more:
Feed The Frontline in Los Angeles
4. Mapping Feeding Efforts
In order to take action, we need to know what’s happening and where gaps exist. There is incredible work going on across America to feed students, seniors, and vulnerable communities. We are mapping out all of the school districts, restaurants offering meals to those in need, and organizations working to keep people fed. You can explore the data below! Turn on the ‘Restaurant view' switch in the top left corner to go from seeing school districts to seeing what restaurants across the country are doing.
Are you already leading an effort to support your community at a local level? Tell us about it here so we can add it to our map!
Is your school district not listed on our map? Let us know so we can add it here.
*Information presented on this map has been crowdsourced from school district websites. Due to such a rapidly evolving response to the COVID-19 outbreak, please refer to the Schools Meals link provided for the most up-to-date information. If you would like to share new or revised information for your school district, please have an official representative complete this form.
Volunteer Information
If you are available and would like to volunteer with any of our #ChefsForAmerica response efforts, please join our Volunteer Corps here and we will be in touch if help is needed in your area. Thank you!
Together, we can help each other get through this time, share our hope and positivity, and make sure everyone has access to fresh meals. Robert Egger, our friend who has always served as a source of inspiration, has shared ways that each of us can help to support those who are struggling with hunger at this time.
Do you have any questions? Please send us a note here.