As the partial government shutdown nears a month, it’s everyday people who most feel the consequences. In this period of time, government employees have been furloughed or have worked without pay. But as President Donald Trump demands that Congress fund the border wall, it’s not known when the shutdown will come to an end. In the meantime, Chef José Andrés has pledged to help those affected by the shutdown. This week, he announced that he’d offer meals to furloughed government employees through his World Central Kitchen organization.
Calling it #ChefsForFeds, Andrés said that government employees and their families shouldn’t have to go without. “World Central Kitchen is always there to respond to any disaster to make sure Americans and people around the world will not go one day without food. Today, we face another type of disaster emergency in the United States,” he said in a video he posted to Twitter. “We believe that no person should have to go through the pain of not knowing what to feed the children, so we’re opening a kitchen.”
The kitchen will be set up on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the US Navy Memorial Plaza, starting today. But Andrés had already been providing sandwiches from his restaurants to furloughed workers, but this week, he’s ramping it up. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., he’ll provide meals for families.