Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has not only started a new space race, but has also launched a new philanthropic award: the Award for Courage and Citizenship, whose first beneficiary was chef José Andrés for his work at the NGO World Central Kitchen.
In a press conference after his 11-minute Blue Origin flight, the businessman and philanthropist announced a prize of 100 million dollars to contribute to the work of José Andrés, who through his non-profit organization helps feed and support people in disaster-affected areas around the world. Recently, he has fed the victims of the German floods.
Bezos announced this recognition as part of the Award for Courage and Citizenship, a newly created award that recognizes people who are working on solutions to global problems. Thus, Van Jones, political contributor to CNN and founder of Dream Corps, also received 100 million dollars. “They can give everything to their own charity or they can share their wealth. It’s all up to them,” Bezos said.
“This award in itself cannot feed the world on its own. But this is the beginning of a new chapter for us: it will allow us to think beyond the next hurricane to the biggest challenges we face. People of the world: now is the time to really think big, to solve hunger with the fierce urgency of now,” explained José Andrés in a statement.
The other milestones and awards achieved by the Spanish chef José Andrés
This is not the first time that the Spanish chef José Andrés has received recognition of this type. In December, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex partnered with World Central Kitchen to build four new relief centers, starting with one in the Caribbean nation of Dominica. Also, the chef was nominated in 2020 for the Nobel Peace Prize. A year in which Time magazine dedicated the cover of a special issue to him on the threat caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
More recently, José Andrés and the World Central Kitchen have been awarded the A candidacy that has been proposed by Pascual Cabaño, president of Queso Rey Silo (Asturias).
Another important recognition was in 2018, when he received the United States National Humanities Medal from Barack Obama.
A fierce fight against hunger and poverty
The NGO fights against hunger and poverty through the improvement of health, education, training and social entrepreneurship. Initiatives such as Haiti Breathes -which made it possible to replace coal stoves with gas ones-, the construction of kitchens that guarantee one meal a day to students from disadvantaged areas or the cooking school that trains some forty new chefs each year, are some examples.
In 2017, the WCK delivered 30,000 meals to firefighters and first responders fighting fires on the California coast, gave 100,000 rations to those affected by Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and, after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, organized twenty-two kitchens and mobilized eighteen thousand volunteers to serve more than three million meals.
In 2019, the WCK joined another private company to provide meals to US officials whose salaries were blocked due to the lack of a budget agreement in the US Administration. It also launched the #chefsforvenezuela initiative to help alleviate the food crisis in that country from the Colombian border city of Cúcuta and helped those affected by Cyclone Dorian in the Bahamas.
During the pandemic, it launched an aid campaign in the United States that has served more than thirty-six million meals in four hundred cities and has spread to more than twenty cities around the world, several in Spain, where, under the slogan #ChefsforSpain , has partnered with restaurants and other organizations (more than a dozen) to provide up to forty thousand meals a day.
During the last year, WCK has been present distributing food to people in need on the US-Mexico border and to those affected by the earthquake in Majumu (Indonesia) and by the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, among others places.
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