WASHINGTON — Bethesda resident and celebrity chef-turned-humanitarian Jose Andrés is featured on TIME Magazine's latest cover, discussing plans to help feed people who are impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Andrés' nonprofit World Central Kitchen aims to assist those who in need, whether from man-made or natural crises.
Feeding those impacted by COVID-19 is nothing new for Andrés, whose nonprofits have also fed those impacted by California wildfires, hurricanes in Puerto Rico, and furloughed government workers to say the least.
In the last two months, World Central Kitchen has also donated and cooked food for quarantined cruise ship members during the pandemic -- Grand Princess in California and members of Diamond Princess in Japan.
And just less than a week ago, both Andrés and members of World Central Kitchen delivered thousands of N95 masks to local D.C. hospitals, including George Washington Hospital and Medstar Washington.
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In an effort to protect the public as well as his workers, Andrés made an announcement on March 15 from his Maryland home that he would be shutting down all of his restaurant locations in the D.C. area indefinitely.
"We are doing this for the right reasons. We need to take care of our employees. We need to take care of our guests for their safety. More importantly, we need to take care of every one of you," Andrés said.
The renowned chef made comments about the decision to temporarily close down locations in his interview with TIME, as well as his driving force in helping others: empathy for those in need.
"What we’ve been able to do is weaponize empathy," he said in the interview. "Without empathy, nothing works."
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