José reports from India as WCK team serves 400,000 meals
In the weeks following the massive Covid surge across India, WCK’s Relief Team has served more than 400,000 hot, nourishing meals to hospital workers on the frontlines of the health crisis. While the largest spike of infections has passed in the big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, smaller cities and rural areas are now seeing an increase in Covid cases. Across India, between 3,000 and 4,000 people are still losing their lives every day—and medical staff have continued working under incredibly difficult circumstances to care for people in need.
WCK founder Chef José Andrés arrived in India last week to support our local chefs who have been cooking since early May. With India’s Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the team is serving freshly prepared meals to more than 30 locations in 15 cities—Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cansaulim, Chennai, Chicalim, Cortalim, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Mysore, Thane, and Varanasi.
In order to move quickly and reach hospitals in cities across India, we joined forces with Taj Sats, which has airplane catering kitchens in many large cities, and Taj Hotels to utilize local hotel kitchens in smaller cities and towns. This has enabled the operation to scale up quickly and adapt to the shifting needs as the dangerous “Delta” variant of Covid spikes in different areas of India. We expect to reach hospitals and Covid affected communities in 25 cities in the coming weeks.
At Taj Sats in Delhi, the team is cooking local favorites like Northern Indian curry made with fenugreek leaves, peas, and cream and served with whole spice pilaf and spiced lentils. The foundation of many dishes comes from a combination of cumin seeds, turmeric powder, coriander powder, byadgi chili powder, kashmiri chili powder, and salt. Bread, water, fruit and juice are served with each meal.
With our newest kitchen partner in New Delhi—Ranch Catering—the team prepares 1,000 meals daily for delivery at five hospitals. The meals we are providing across India are served as thali, which translates as “plate” in Hindi—a number of small balanced dishes served on large platters.
Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in New Delhi is strictly caring for patients with Covid. Several weeks ago, the hospital was overflowing as new infections and deaths peaked. Thankfully, staff have seen a slow decline in cases, and the hospital now has some available ICU beds. Still, staff are working around the clock and the circumstances have taken a toll on everyone working to provide care.
Rinki (left) and Sunita (right) are both nurses at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. They’ve been receiving WCK meals for several weeks now.
Rinki told us, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking up this initiative. I used to wake up very early to cook and pack a lunch… Now that pressure is off my shoulders—I know good quality food will be provided to me.”
