August 29, 2007
Two Years After – Remember Hurricane Katrina's Victims Today
Chefs for Humanity Remembers Its Work during the Time of Disaster, and Sends Out a Solemn Wake-Up Call: We Must Be Ready Now
Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina,
with its violent winds and killing waters swept into mainland United
States and shattered the lives and livelihoods of millions of
people. Today, two years later, numerous of those unfortunate hit by the
unprecedented, devastating storm, are still suffering. Many have left New
Orleans out of despair and a sense of abandonment.
Chefs for Humanity (CFH) is a group
of culinary professionals working to fight hunger, provide food nutrition
education, emergency food relief when the need arises, and in general,
humanitarian aid worldwide. We believe that Hurricane Katrina, even with the
devastation and misfortune it caused, sends us a solemn wake-up call to prevent
future disasters and human misery of such epic proportions. We must be ready
now.
We Worked Hard in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
CFH went into the devastated gulf
coast region in the aftermath of the hurricane. We were able to help feed
some of the people who were recovering from their losses with the help of many
emergency workers in the region. CFH set up a base camp in Gulfport,
MS and worked with an amazing group of women from the administrative
services division of the Gulfport Police department to help people in the area.
In addition to these women, Commander Randy Brown and Chief Steve Barnes worked
with us around the clock to feed local evacuees and emergency workers from all
over the country who were volunteering in the region. These amazing people
welcomed us into their kitchens and let us cook for them.
In addition to the support CFH
received from local residents and volunteers from all across the country,
significant support came from Susan Stockton and the Food Network with
assistance, necessary cooking requirements and culinary support. All of these
volunteers, CFH Executives Cat Cora and then Director Debra Rainey, along with
celebrity chefs Ming Tsai, Charlie Ayers and Alton Brown, worked tirelessly out
of Gulfport. In the end, all of the volunteer efforts helped the
Gulfport Emergency Services coordinate between 3,500 and 5,000 meals a day for
three weeks. It was quite an
accomplishment.
We had two separate kitchen delivery initiatives. One
kitchen prepared and provided three shelters with 1,000 meals per day at the
busiest point. The meals were distributed via large foodservice-portable food
delivery. The second kitchen fed emergency workers--up to 2,000
meals a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner service in a cafeteria, as well as
an additional of 750 take-out meals for emergency workers who were unable
to leave their work sites. Additionally, we prepared and froze many meals and
organized mise en place and menus for
an additional two weeks of food service even after we left. During this
initiative, donated food that was not used was given to a local culinary college
and three local churches.
CFH also organized fundraisers in
Gulf Shores, Alabama in September 2005 to
benefit the Emergency Workers in Gulfport, MS. We executed two
additional fundraisers (One an Iron Chef!) in that November.
CFH President Cat Cora has
participated in numerous Katrina fundraisers including Mississippi Rising and
A2H.
CFH joined Coinstar along with many other media and supporting partners, in their goal to collect spare change for Katrina rebuilding. Our President and council chefs Ming Tsai and Gale Gand contributed barbecue recipes to the promotion and participated in public awareness programs.
You can continue to donate your spare change at any local Coinstar
machine. Just push the appropriate button to donate the change directly to
Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is using all proceeds from these
change donations to rebuild the shattered coastline of the gulf coast.
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