#ChefsForAmerica Update: A Day in Los Angeles
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States in mid-March, WCK’s Relief Team deployed across the country—as well as in Spain, Indonesia, and the Dominican Republic—to feed communities most impacted by shutdowns and job loss. Through this effort, WCK has provided 35 million meals to people in over 400 cities.
Then this month, WCK’s Restaurants for the People program received support from Marcus Lemonis and his Plating Change program, along with a newly formed partnership with Grubhub. This donation is helping WCK’s Covid response in cities across the US including Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Miami, and Philadelphia. In addition to the financial donation, Grubhub’s team is supporting WCK’s program by identifying restaurants, coordinating deliveries, and providing resources for our local teams. During this holiday season, this has been much appreciated as it’s allowed our program to provide additional help to communities in need.
In Los Angeles alone, WCK has served more than four million meals since our first day of Covid response back in March. Through our Restaurants for the People program, our Relief Team has been supporting local restaurants to cook meals for neighbors in need, providing critical revenue to keep their businesses going while also tackling the hunger crisis the nation is facing. We have partnered with 70 restaurants in Los Angeles County to prepare fresh meals for more than 85 different locations, while distributing almost $10 million back into those businesses. Here’s a closer look at one day of meal distribution in the city.
The first stop of the day is at El Barrio Tacos in LA’s South Bay. Chef Uli grew up in a family of restaurateurs, so food has always been an integral part of his life. After cooking at a variety of restaurants around Los Angeles, he decided to open El Barrio “to showcase his distinct approach for taqueria-style food with the community.”
The morning we stopped by, Uli, Elena, and Joe were making mouthwatering tacos—al pastor and chorizo. This meal is typical of what they sell in their restaurant and what they share with neighbors in need through their partnership with WCK. Uli and Joe told our team that they are incredibly proud of the work they are doing with us, and they’re committed to serving their community into the future.
After visiting El Barrio, our Relief Team headed to Good News Missionary Baptist Church in Leimert Park, where we’ve been serving meals since the spring. Once service began, our team got the chance to talk with folks as they stopped for lunch.
Reynaud, lovingly known as “King Rey” by some, is an unhoused neighbor of Good News and has been coming to get WCK meals here since May. Rey has mouth cancer so he can only eat certain foods. He told us he doesn’t always take a meal, but he is appreciative of the work WCK is doing and is always a warm, friendly face at Good News.
We also met Birdie at Good News who asked that her photo be taken. She and her husband are both artists. Birdie shared that she now has enough food to make it through the weekend.
Tana recently began attending Good News Church. She is excited by the opportunity to assist the church with meal service to help her neighbors and to lend a hand with distribution. Tana packed boxes of restaurant meals that were delivered to a local women’s shelter, a retirement home, and other churches in the area.
To learn more about our efforts in these cities and across the country, follow WCK on Twitter and Instagram. There are many ways to support our work: on Grubhub, you can opt in to their Donate the Change program to round up your order total as a donation to WCK – and you can also donate directly to WCK here.
