Ron Howard’s latest NatGeo documentary, “We Feed People,” premieres Friday on Disney+, and it follows a man who you’ve likely seen in the news or on social media in the past few years. Mr. Rogers once said, in times of trouble, to “look for the helpers,” and it seems, these days, whenever one looks for a helper, you’ll likely find Chef José Andrés and his team at World Central Kitchen.
For a decade, Andrés and WCK have rapidly deployed to sites of disaster and strife across the globe to serve hot meals to those in need, and 2022 has brought the biggest World Central Kitchen mission yet: since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, they have served over 27 million meals across eight countries to Ukrainians impacted by the war. Howard’s documentary is a portrait of the man behind the mission, as well as the early days of organization, and the formative experiences that taught them how to take on an endeavor as huge as feeding Ukraine right now.
While “We Feed People” doesn’t cover World Central Kitchen’s work in Ukraine, it offers up a look at how Andrés came to head up this organization, what drives him to continue this relief work, and some of the influential experiences that he and the team went through in developing their strategies for getting hot meals to people suffering through disaster. Andrés volunteered with the job training program D.C. Central Kitchen in the early ‘90s when he arrived in Washington, D.C., from Spain to head up the Spanish tapas restaurant Jaleo, and that model of dignity and empowerment in charity work stuck with him when he began WCK in 2010, in Haiti after the devastating earthquake. From Haiti, to Puerto Rico, to Guatemala, to the Bahamas, to the Navajo Nation, “We Feed People” tracks not just the important work of WCK, but of the organization’s growth as well, now capable of rapid-response relief just about anywhere in any conditions.
