#ChefsForFlorida: Visual Stories
Making landfall as a Category-4 storm in southwest Florida on September 28, Hurricane Ian became the deadliest hurricane to strike the state since 1935. Arriving ahead of the storm, WCK’s Relief Team quickly scaled up our efforts to meet the urgent needs of hard-hit communities. For three weeks now, our Relief Kitchen in Fort Myers and over 50 food truck partners have distributed 825,000 meals.
Right after Ian’s passing, our Relief Team spread out across impacted areas to understand food needs. During the first days of our distribution, we learned that for many residents WCK meals and sandwiches were the first hot dish or food they had eaten since the storm.
In addition to delivering directly to various community partners, we set up locations with food trucks serving free meals to anyone in need. Families in cities including Port Charlotte and Englewood—can come to these mini food truck parks to enjoy a freshly prepared lunch. At the peak of our response, our WCK Relief Kitchen and local restaurant and food truck partners, were serving more than 40,000 meals each day.
Ian destroyed the only bridge connecting Pine Island to mainland Florida. To immediately begin supporting the community, WCK loaded up a helicopter with fresh meals. For a week, we flew in food two times a day cooked out of our Relief Kitchen in Tampa and later Fort Myers. Our team has served meals both out of our distribution hub at the island’s welcome center and door-to-door to people unable to leave their homes. Together with a local food truck and restaurant partner on Pine Island, we are now serving up thousands of nourishing meals. We’ve also supplied the community with ice and fresh fruit.
Pine Island is home to many senior communities with lightweight homes. The destruction brought on by the hurricane has left residents amongst the debris with limited help to clean up.
“I’m helping all my friends since I’m the young one. I’m tarping up homes, trying to dry them out—although it’s pretty tough since every home has had 23 or so inches of water inside. We gotta get moving before the mold takes over. This food means a whole lot, I haven’t eaten yet today—and the heat gets to you. Oranges keep your sugar up!”, says Wally, a Pine Island resident.
Sanibel Island was also left cut off after Ian’s storm surge damaged the causeway. During the first days, we flew in thousands of meals, sandwiches, and water bottles which were distributed to first responders and families on the island with the help of the Sanibel Fire Rescue team. We then loaded up ferries that were left undamaged with more hot meals and fresh fruit.
Widespread flooding in North Port forced many residents to evacuate their homes. Immediately following the storm, while we made our way around the area, we helped some people reach dry land where family members were waiting for them. Our team made sure to leave them with sandwiches and water.
The family pictured below is from Fort Myers. To escape the fast-rising flood waters, the family grabbed their dogs and went to the roof of a nearby building where they spent the night. The kids described the situation as scary. They are seen here in front of their home having a WCK lunch.
As government aid continues to roll out across Florida, residents of the Dunbar neighborhood in Fort Myers are leaning on each other to get through recovery. Fortunately, Hurricane Ian left the Galilee Baptist Church with minimal damage, so families have been able to gather for service and to be with one another. To support the community, WCK partnered with Haitian restaurant Koupe Dwet to provide comforting meals at two of the church’s Sunday services. Some members of the congregation lost everything and were crying as they expressed their appreciation of WCK’s continued support.
Several neighborhoods in North Fort Myers have primarily one story buildings which were flooded. Since communication lines were down and many residents lost their cars, our team set up a walkable distribution site at a church, providing hot food, produce, and water. Food trucks cooked up delicious dishes like sesame chicken and pasta primavera with meatballs and fresh spinach.
In partnership with the Miami Dolphins, we also held a special event for the community at the nearby North Fort Myers High School. WCK and three food trucks served over 4,000 plates of food and the Dolphins distributed much-needed items like generators, hygiene supplies, cleaning products, and baby formula! Students from the school’s football and cheerleading teams helped run our efforts.
While out delivering sandwiches in Fort Myers Beach soon after Ian’s passing, our team met Tom and his daughter, Elyssa. They needed to reach the mainland so we drove them and along the trip they shared their story with us.
Tom and Elyssa are from Boston but came to their apartment in Fort Myers Beach for a family vacation. Once Ian shifted its path further south, it was already too late to evacuate. The streets were flooded and they were stuck on the second floor. For five hours there was heavy rain and wind. Tom and Elyssa took all the mattresses they could find and put them against their windows, but regardless, three windows shattered completely. Tom says that if one more window had shattered, they’d be dead. He kept thinking that if they could survive for a few hours then they would survive the hurricane. Tom then realized he felt just as afraid two days after when they were still trapped and unable to receive help. Once seeing emergency workers, they were able to charge their phones and tell their families they were safe. Tom teared up when he told us how brave and strong his daughter Elyssa had been.
Fort Myers Beach sustained unthinkable damage from Hurricane Ian. Most families have evacuated, but WCK’s Relief Team set up food distribution to serve remaining residents, first responders, and clean up crews.
Vandy chose not to evacuate from Fort Myers Beach because she wanted to gather her belongings and check on her neighbors. She is in her 70s and has lived in the Red Coconut mobile park for 18 years. The park had been in Fort Myers Beach since the 1920s, but now Ian left it completely wiped out. Behind Vandy in the photo below is her car, flipped under a palm tree.
“Thank you for being here, for remembering we’re here. I got two meals knowing my roommates will want a bite.”
Our Cape Coral distribution hub was lively with music and community members coming together through the difficult time. In addition to grabbing sandwiches for later, families were able to select from a diverse array of dishes offered by our food truck partners who drove in from Miami. Each day, our partners drove 3-4 hours to and from our Cape Coral site, many beginning their days as early as 5am. Several trucks that offered BBQ and Caribbean food also spent extensive time marinating and smoking meats. It is important to our parters and our team that people who have gone through the unimaginable receive a fresh meal that has been thoughtfully prepared with love and care, telling them they are not alone and that someone is thinking of them.
Tony, a resident of Cape Coral for 31 years, was grateful to be able to bring back hot WCK meals and juicy, cold oranges to his son and two daughters. He said it has been a rough couple of days and will be a long road of recovery.
To bear the heat, our distribution location in Port Charlotte even had an ice cream truck! Fresh plates were also accompanied with fruit. And longtime WCK partner Cajun Navy Relief helped us unload cambros packed with hot trays from our Relief Kitchen.
I am about to start crying. Thank you so much for being here for the people. I am taking food to my neighbors that completely lost their house.
Charity from Port Charlotte
In Englewood, our drive-up site grew rapidly as more residents heard we were handing out fresh food. Numerous people cried in their cars while thanking us for being there. Our team also spoke to residents who had not eaten a hot meal in a week.
“I don’t think people realize how bad it is out here,” was a common theme we heard.
The community felt forgotten or that the outside world was second guessing if there was an urgent need for aid in Englewood. Many families live in mobile homes with fragile infrastructure. During the hurricane, several people stayed put because a hotel and evacuating would have been too costly.
For residents unable to reach our Englewood distribution site, WCK volunteers helped us deliver door to door. We found people cleaning up and beginning repairs so fresh plates of food served as a nice break to refuel.
In nearby South Venice, we met Bob. The area was heavily inundated and during the first few days people were kayaking to get around.
“We spent days preparing. We filled sandbags at every door, but you’re only good to your tallest sandbag. I didn’t know it would be this bad. Once the flood waters topped the sandbags, they held the water inside. By the time we came back, we had a huge pool of stagnant water in our home – and mold everywhere, eating our house from the inside out.”
WCK meals from our Fort Myers kitchen have been crucial when assisting people beyond our food truck parks. This has included people cleaning up at home, homebound residents, and families without the means to reach distribution sites. To ensure we serve as many people as possible, WCK cooks begin their day at 5am and use five paella pans to dish out thousands of daily meals. Menu items have ranged from saffron garden rice with BBQ meatballs and smoked provolone cheese to beef chili and sweet potato hash.
As in many of the places WCK responds to, our team is always left inspired by the power and strength of communities coming together to support one another.
Ckrystal and her mom Skyla from Port Charlotte loaded up WCK meals from our local distribution site to drive down to two neighborhoods that were underwater.
Although firefighter Domenic from Cape Coral was grateful to be unharmed by Ian, he was still feeling the pain and loss of his community. Domenic has friends with boats and was eager to help our Relief Team deliver supplies to Pine Island. Showing up with a captain and boat, he helped us transport water and supplies.
On Pine Island, our food truck partner, Tacos El Viejon, is owned and operated by a resident of the community. The families in this neighborhood are the backbone of Pine Island, and have been the labor behind the clean up from tree removal to power cables construction.
Here it’s just a grain of sand helping each other, but I’m singing while I do it. As they say, there is strength in unity. Keep the movement forward, together.
Cauri from Tacos El Viejon
While power and water restorations are allowing some people to begin cooking, we are continuing to identify communities in need of support. Some areas are still dealing with the impacts of severe flooding that could last for months. Many people are packing their cars and taking whatever they can or whatever is left of their belongings. Meanwhile some residents are drying out their furniture, cleaning, and repairing.
Our team is adapting to the evolving situation, and shifting our response to prioritize communities still without basic needs or unable to access public assistance locations. For areas no longer needing our support, we have consolidated meal sites to locations with the highest need. Fresh, nourishing meals are one less thing Floridians have to worry about as they focus on rebuilding, so we’ll keep supporting as long as we are able to.
For the latest on our #ChefsForFlorida efforts, follow WCK on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
