Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are working with Chef Jose Andrés’ central kitchen to fund four new help centers to help the organization achieve its goal of feeding people in disaster areas.
The couple makes the donation through the Archewell Foundation. The first center will open on Sunday, which was hit by Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017, sometime next year. The second center will be built in Puerto Rico. Two additional locations have not yet been announced.
“The health of our communities depends on our ability to connect to our common humanity,” Markle and Prince Harry said in an email to TODAY Food. “When we think of Chef Andrés and his incredible team at World Central Kitchen, we are reminded that even during a year of unimaginable hardships, there are so many amazing people willing – and working tirelessly – to support each other. reciprocal. World Central Kitchen inspires us through compassion in action. “
The couple also plans to work with the organization to “hire additional partners” to build more help centers around the world, the statement added.
“We believe in the healing power of food and we like to say wherever we fight, so that hungry people eat, we will be there,” Andrés said in an email. “We are more energetic than ever to continue this vital work and we are proud to be working hand in hand with the Archewell Foundation and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. I got to know them both well and I think the values are directly aligned with what we represent at World Central Kitchen. “
World Central Kitchen was founded by the famous chef in 2010. In a letter on his website, he said, “Our struggle to feed hungry people has taken us to more places than we ever expected.” during the pandemic.
“In 2020, the world has changed profoundly and our daily lives have been turned upside down in a way that none of us could have ever imagined. We have worked in communities across the United States and around the world to meet the daily needs of families in need of a hot plate. – and has supported thousands of local restaurants in the process, “Andrés wrote.” We have also responded to natural and man-made disasters in countries on five continents, from massive fires in Australia to an explosion. deadly in Lebanon to the devastating hurricanes of Central America.
This is not the first time Markle has been involved in a philanthropic culinary project. After private visits to the Grenfell Tower community kitchen, she launched a cookbook with recipes from families living in the tower, where a fire killed 72 people in 2017.
Proceeds from “Together: Our Community Cookbook” went to the kitchen.
“I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place where women can laugh, grieve, cry and cook together, ”the duchess wrote in the book’s preface. “By combining cultural identities under a common roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy – in its simplest form, the universal need to connect, feed and communicate through food, crisis or joy – something we can all relate to. “