Homeless During A Hurricane

Jose Andres

 

Jose Andres is an internationally recognized celebrity chef who owns and operates several restaurants in the Washington, DC metropolitan area: Jaleo, Zaytinya and Oyamel.  It doesn't matter which one you choose, all of them serve delicious and innovative menus.  Personally, I love Oyamel and my son loves Jaleo.

 

Andres, born in Spain, is a busy, busy guy running his critically acclaimed and commercially successful business ventures but he also cares about his community and finds time to give back.

 

This weekend, as news reports forecast the arrival of Hurricane Sandy's on the East Coast, Andres rolled up his sleeves and worked the food line at DC Central Kitchen, prepping and coordinating meals for the city's homeless population, which has an even harder time finding food during a hurricane.

DC Central Kitchen is an inspiring and vital organization located in the city that offers job training to homeless men and women, giving them hope and a different set of life skills so that they can get become independent.  For over 25 years, DC Central Kitchen has been fighting hunger and today it also provides thousands of healthy, locally sourced school meals to low-income DC Public School students every day.

As Hurricane Sandy gathered speed, and wind and rain swirled around the nation's capital, Andres, who is a chair emiritus of DC Central Kitchen, joined other trained DC Central Kitchen workers to cook and organize meals make sure the homeless could continue to be fed for a number of days in case the power went out.

 

Andres is a food enthusiast which means that while he enjoys the creation of fantastic Spanish and Mexican cuisine he also doesn't like to see food go to waste and is generous in sharing his time and resources with others who are less fortunate.

We are lucky to have Andres and the DC Central Kitchen in our community!

 

Here's the link to The Washington Post story about Jose Andres and DC Central Kitchen:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-we-can-eat/post/feeding-the-poor-and-homeless-during-hurricane-sandy/2012/10/29/98b05b30-21d5-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_blog.html

Oh Sandy -- Please Be Kind

 

 

 

 

Let's see...Hurricane Sandy, with all her power and threatening ability to destroy most of everything in her path, is currently working her way up the East Coast ready to hit land somewhere in the metropolitan DC area or thereabouts.

 

The federal government has announced it is shut down for Monday and so is Amtrak, most of the  schools in DC, Maryland and northern Virginia and Metro bus and rail service.

 

Everyone I know has gone to the grocery store, filled up their gas tanks, cleaned out their gutters and stairwells and is bracing for one horrific storm.  My son is being evacated from Yorktown, Va to Richmond and also a friend who lives in Bethany Beach, Delaware is being evacuated inland to safer ground.

 

No one is quite sure what to expect but it looks like it's going to be bad.  Rain is falling right now, not too hard but it is steady.  Based on my experience with other hurricanes coming through this area, I would say it's a sure bet that we lose power.  A survey recently showed that PEPCO is thought to be one of the worst utility company ever in the DC metropolitan area and has been rated as the most hated companies because of its poor service and willingness to raise rates.  So my low expectations say that being without power is will probably be days not hours.

 

Please stay safe everyone!