Volunteering With World Central Kitchen in the L.A. Wildfires

As soon as news of multiple wildfires broke in the Los Angeles area, eyes turned to World Central Kitchen (WCK). The organization, founded in 2010 by chef Jose Andres as an ad hoc response to devastating earthquakes in Haiti, is, in its current incarnation, as familiar a presence in war zones, refugee camps, and natural disaster sites as FEMA, the Red Cross, and other humanitarian organizations. According to WCK statistics, chefs affiliated with the program have served over 450 million meals in crisis and disaster zones around the globe, and domestic efforts in response to storms and flooding in the Southeast and Appalachia continue to this day.

Though firefighters have managed to contain multiple fires, the danger has not been abated — occasionally re-fueled by massive wind gusts — and hundreds of thousands of residents remain — if not thoroughly displaced and unhoused as many have been — extremely on edge while they await potential evacuation orders. World Central Kitchen volunteers are keenly aware of the needs — both physical and emotional — that a substantial, nourishing, warm meal can provide. 

Previous WCK volunteer, chef Seamus Mullen, posted on his Instagram stories that while he was loading his injured horse into a trailer, someone handed him a “much needed” meal from WCK. 

“@chefjoseandres food never tasted so good,” his caption read. “I’ve worked with @wckitcken before but never knew that one day I would be able to count on this amazing organization for my own help!!!”

Chef Tyler Florence, a longtime California resident with deep ties to the Los Angeles area through his work in restaurants and on the Food Network, and friendships in the culinary community, spent multiple days on the ground with WCK and spoke to Food & Wine from the Los Angeles airport on his way back home.

What made you answer the call to help in Southern California even though you’re based in Northern California?

California is a beautiful, complex, diverse, wonderful place to live. It’s my creative community. I realized I had been cooking California food my entire life. California is my home, and I love it here. I’ve been working in Los Angeles for 25 years. I have lots and lots of friends here, and when something like this happens, it’s California love all the way. This is my fourth or fifth [WCK] deployment over the last 10 years or so, and they’ve had dozens and dozens and dozens of things around the world they’ve been a part of. 

But when these things happen specifically in California, I feel the need to jump in and because these are our neighbors and this our community.

What’s your experience with relief efforts like this?

In Northern California we’re very familiar with wildfires, how fast and fast moving and devastating these fires could possibly be — and then what the aftermath looks and feels like. The real humanitarian situation is going to happen five minutes after it’s over, specifically with large fires like this, because life as these people have known it is over. And then they’re trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what the next step is going to be, carrying everything that they own in their hands and wearing every single piece of clothing they have on their body and just trying to figure out what the next step is going to be. 

What role does food play in recovery?

The first thing that needs to happen is just nutrition. Society breaks down in seven meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast. Society can break down pretty quickly. World Central Kitchen gets on the ground incredibly quickly — I mean they’re faster than FEMA — within 24 hours, 48 hours of a crisis and starts delivering hot, fresh, nutritious food to people in need all over the world. 

Why are restaurants and chefs so uniquely suited to this work?

This is what we do. We open up our restaurants every night with a sense of welcome. We know how to produce high-quality food at scale and how to organize and run teams. It’s also what we do from an entertainment standpoint. If you come into our restaurants, it feels like a good time, but on a base level, we know how to feed people and that is vital in emergency situations. 

What impact are you seeing on restaurants and their workers in L.A.?

This emergency has stopped the flow of traffic of people going to restaurants across the board. These are the situations that start to happen next. There are conversations about canceling the Oscars. These are the big economic impact moments that trickle all the way down to the valet guy who’s parking cars. So I think it’s crucial to the city — on top of what it’s facing — that it still does what it does. We’re still Los Angeles and we’re still going to celebrate entertainment and we are here to make sure that it doesn’t impact the city even further.

So people should keep dining out?

It’s really important. If you want to just pull a blanket over your shoulders and sit in the front of the fire soup, that’s OK, but there are so many more people in your community that need your support. This is not the moment to flex, “Check out my foie gras dish I had at this fancy restaurant.” But also at the same time, these restaurants are sitting at half capacity because everyone’s afraid of going out. Maybe just don’t take pictures of your food. You don’t have to tell the world about everything that you’re doing. 

Go out and have dinner and support your neighborhood restaurant or get takeout. It’s really important. Keep these people alive. Restaurants are very fragile. They’re very, very, very fragile.

What goes into one of these nourishing meals?

Temperature is really important. There’s nothing that says I love you more than touching something warm. Soup, stews, chilis, burritos, can feel warm and nourishing. 

Yesterday I was stationed with World Central Kitchen at Will Rogers State Park on the Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Palisades in between Santa Barbara and Malt. That was Command Central for LAPD and Santa Monica PD and the National Guard and all fire rescue. There were hundreds of first responders right there. We had seven food trucks ready to rock and roll. That was a very nourishing moment to be able to support first responders and firefighters and police officers. 

Then we loaded up our car with hundreds of portions of warm, hot, fresh burritos and drove up deep into the hills up in the Palisades and got a chance to run into fire engines and fire trucks and fire teams that had been hand-to-hand combat battling house fires for two days and had not slept for two days and had not had a meal in two days. 

Those are those moments. Their faces were filthy, and they just looked exhausted, and you could see just the fear in their eyes of what they had seen, and someone handing them a hot meal — that moment of gratitude where someone is saying, listen, I appreciate what you are doing, that’s what humanity feels like to me. 

How can people get involved with World Central Kitchen?

Go onto the website, and there are two things you can do: Donate because money equals meals. Every dollar directly impacts the hot food being delivered to so many people. You can also sign up for a volunteer sheet to become part of [WCK’s] global core of volunteers called to action in their community. They’ll figure out where you are from your zip code. If a crisis happens in your particular area, they will reach out to you, and you can jump in and help serve. It’s a really great place to activate and to be a part of a bigger community, which is just so heartwarming and touching because you feel like you’re doing something.