1,250,000 meals served through #ChefsForIndia
Beginning in February, India was devastated by a second wave of Covid cases – many which were due to the highly infectious Delta variant. At its peak, India was reporting over 400,000 new daily infections and several thousand deaths a day. Hospitals were overwhelmed as supplies, including ICU beds and oxygen, could not meet the demand for the rising number of patients.
As the situation unfolded, the WCK Relief Team joined Chef Sanjeev Kapoor in May to begin cooking daily meals for frontline healthcare workers in Mumbai. Chef Sanjeev is a well-known Indian Chef who has become a great partner and friend of WCK, and he has been critical to helping mobilize our response effort in India.
Our work quickly expanded to first Ahmedabad and then Delhi, and by the end of week three we were serving 11 cities across 10 different states with over 260,000 meals prepared and delivered.
José traveled to Mumbai at the end of May to support the local chefs cooking and to help with food distribution. When he and other WCK Relief Team members arrived the team had already served more than 400,000 meals in 15 different cities.
Concluding our efforts now several months later, WCK has worked with 13 kitchens to bring hot, nourishing meals to hospitals, police outposts, and quarantine centers. As the virus rapidly spread across the country, our partners Taj Sats and Taj Hotels helped scale up our efforts through the use of their airplane catering kitchens and local hotel kitchens in smaller cities and towns. In total, we have served meals to people at 36 sites which included the frontline staff of Civil Hospital, the largest hospital in Asia.
For frontline workers and medical staff working under the difficult conditions, we made sure to supply meals for the day staff and night crews, and both lunch and dinner for people working around the clock. The WCK team also supplied brave medical staff with juice to stay hydrated while they worked in the incredibly hot weather with full PPE. Our nourishing meals are meant to provide a helping hand – with these efforts, medical staff had one less thing to worry about and could focus on caring for their patients.
While responding to India’s immediate relief needs, WCK is also helping to build resilience through the creation of a Community Relief Center in Mumbai. This new relief center is part of our ongoing philanthropic partnership with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s nonprofit, Archewell Foundation. The center will be dedicated to serve as an emergency response kitchen in times of crisis and through calmer times it can serve as a food distribution hub, school, clinic, or community gathering space for families.
Regional lockdowns, vaccines, and an estimated two-thirds of the population having antibodies against Covid have helped bring down India’s daily cases to now around 40,000. Due to the significant decline in daily infection rates and hospitals no longer operating beyond full capacity, the WCK team officially closed out our Covid relief operations on July 31. From the time we arrived in May, WCK and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor served more than 1,260,000 nourishing meals for healthcare heroes on the frontlines of India’s Covid surge. Meals were delivered in 15 cities across 11 states.
Throughout WCK’s Covid response in India, our team adapted to the circumstances as needs changed and expanded support as we were able. While finalizing our relief response to the pandemic, states along the south west region of India were hit with torrential rain—breaking a 40 year record—causing flood damage, power outages, and forcing many to evacuate their homes. With our local partners, we delivered meals to families in the hard-hit areas of Chiplun and Mahad, both cities in the state of Maharashtra. We served an additional 125,000 meals to evacuees staying in shelters in both cities and people remaining at home without power. Power and water are now scheduled to be restored next week.
As countries everywhere continue to work to control the pandemic, WCK will keep monitoring situations around the world and provide warm, nutritious plates of food where we are able.
For the latest on our efforts, follow WCK on Twitter and Instagram.
