Disaster Relief Pt. 2: From 'Food Line' to Front Line

be in. And often these are the same people who pointed at people who needed assistance and saying they brought on themselves and raise yourself up by your bootstraps and you know, maybe you shouldn't have that many children, and you know, just buck up. Well, now we're seeing that through no fault of their own, they're in that same position forty million Americans that lost their job so far, and uh so the need just keeps growing and you can't rely on even uh kind of slapping the other

emergency responses. Hey, I'm Tom Collichio. This is my cast Citizen Chef. This is part two of our disaster episode. In this episode, we'll take a look at nonprofit and social services and you know, the agencies there to pick up the pieces and you know, hopefully we'll be better prepared for the next localized disaster, hurricane fire, our pandemic. But it has to start with a plan, and in the absence of a government plan, charity steps in. But

but it's it's it's not enough. So we're gonna hear from Carolin Bestcom who hasn't turned it out in Tobago see how localized disaster, how they're dealing with it there. But first we're gonna talk to the CEO of World Central Kitchen, Nate Muke. Nate. The last time we spoke it was pre COVID and we were having a discussion about UH feeding people in a disaster area. The interview I did with with Nate, the first interview was in studio. I don't know was that in January or early February.

I don't even remember. A lot. A lot has changed since then. For sure we were in a studio, face to face, so it'll probably sound a little different than part one. So I'm here with Nick muk who's the CEO of World Central Kitchen, and they have been just beating the drum on having a government response, not so much a charitable response. Why why was there a need for a World Central Kitchen or Jose to fill this gap.

What what what what are we missing here? And how can our government improve and and be uh more nimble when it comes to feeding people in disaster areas. So Jose often says that he wishes he were doing this work back when Katrina hit New Orleans. UM, you may remember the Superdome. We had tens of thousands of people evacuated the Superdome and there was no food and there was no water, and you know, we said after that moment as a country that we would never let this

happen again. We keep saying as a country, we're gonna get better at this, better at this. But the problem is the the model, the underlying response is broken. UM. Generally, the way that that it works in our country is for the first seventy two hours, we sort of consider that these like m r s shelf stable things or are sufficient or people will get by, and then after that it's sort of it's at hawc um. There's no

real system. When we landed in Puerto Rico, the first question we asked was, Okay, who's who's doing the food? And there was no answer. Nobody, nobody. So you know, this definitely is not something that that you know that Jose went to seek out it was something that he

saw firsthand. And I think what we've witnessed was that, uh, you don't have folks who know food and understand food, who are in the power of making the decisions and crafting these uh you know, the emergency response scenarios and so UM, if you don't know anything about food, you don't know how you you don't even know where to begin. And so I think this is where the real power of of chefs comes into play. This is the real

power of this industry at large. UM, is that you can tap into all of that experience and uh, the expertise and the speed and efficiency of the private sector, but also you know, the resources on the ground. I mean, if you're if you're going somewhere like Puerto Rico, your best asset is all of those Puerto Ricans that you know their communities and so you know, it's it's something that I hope that by doing this work where we're showing what is possible UM and we can start to

change the system. That's really the I think one of our long term goals is start to show that for our fellow Americans and also our fellow global citizens around the world, that that that we deserve better, that that we can do better. Um, there's no reason we can't be cooking fresh meals for folks who just went through this traumatic experience of a natural disaster and do it within twelve hours and and be able to support these

communities in need. Um in this sort of fierce urgency of now uh as As Jose says, quoting uh Dr Martin Luther King Jr. That you know, we we have to be able to move quickly, and so you know, that's that's really kind of what what we're aiming to do. If you look at a an arena, say where where sporting events happen, Jose often remarks that, you know, we think of them as as these facilities for sports or music or whatever, but ultimately they're actually really just giant

restaurants not being used. And so I hope that that by doing this work, we can show what's possible and start to change the system. And and we've been doing more of that. You know, Jose is not uh you know, anti government or anti you know, he's really trying to engage. It also strikes me that there's there's more than a need of just food. Um, when people are losing their homes, they can't find their family. Um, A simple act of feeding someone does a lot more to just nourish them.

Can you can you talk about the sort of emotional connections that you make with people on the ground and sort of how you really feed their soul and not just their stomach. Absolutely, you know, we really believe that it's cooking and preparing and serving and handing somebody a plate of hot food is is a message. I mean, it's it's it's symbolic and that somebody has taken the time thoughtfully and crafted you know this, this plate of hot food. It's it's not just about the calories, you know,

It's it really is about that. Look, we know things are tough right now, and we know it's going to take some time, but we're here and we're gonna be here tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and we're gonna keep coming back, and we want to make your life a little bit easier. We know you just went through this hard moment and we're gonna we're gonna make it just that much easier to get through

the day. And that really is is at the core I think of of what we do and why Jose founded World Central Kitchen from the beginning because food it's it's it's so powerful that transcends all of our boundaries. And so yeah, it is, uh, it's something really at the very core of what we do. And we we engage and we we talked to the comunities and we listen to them as well, and you know, we hope that it's um you know, can just make things just that much easier. Thank you. That's great for having banks

appreciate it. How did the gears even start when it comes to disaster relief like we saw in New York City after nine eleven or after Katrina, as well as of any hurricanes and fires in between. So let's hear from someone who has experienced both sides of a disaster in a food bank line and on the front lines, Lane Fisher of Tulane University during times of disaster, who's

making sure people eat? A lot of times it's the church groups and the local community entities and things like that that really take the brunt of fixing things after taking in people during a storm, and then of course the potluck dinners that always found my old Baptist churches. You know that the potlucks that follow that comes through, you know, and always get out food. It's they're they're

the biggest food donors in a lot of ways. It's these local groups, not just church groups, but local groups like even things like the Council of Aging. And in Louisiana we have what we coined the Cajun Navy, where pretty much just a whole bunch of good old boys getting a flat boat and they pick up people just to help, you know. I'm Blaine Fisher. I'm a professor at Tulane University and Emergency Security Studies UM past life. I used to also be a paramedic here in New Orleans.

I come from a place called Bureaus, Louisiana. You don't know where that is imagined. Louisiana is a big boot. Wherever your tonail would be in that boot would be where my house was. That's ground zero for hurricane So my family never played around. Camille hit. My parents, grandparents get wiped out. Betsy hit. My grandparents didn't get wiped out. Katrina hit, we get wiped out. Isaac came in, my parents lost her house the second time. I'm like Jason Bourne.

I was like born at because I have no childhood pictures. They're all gone. It's like I'm like off the grid, you know, but I remember as a child just even a category one hurricane, usually category one hurricane is what we we're gonna call hurricane parties. Worry, take everything out of a refrigerator, invite your neighbors in because we gotta

eat it because you don't have electricity. So all the meat and people are like, you know, if you're next to people that's hunting a lot and stuff, and all of a sudden, everything they've been stockpiling for the local community is just as big pig, hog roast or whatever it is. And you eat great the first day, but after that it goes downhill. Past that, you know, you're crushing our brain of noodles. That's usually when National Guard cove steps in and female kind of comes in and

the Red Cross and things like that. And like I said on the Katrina side, I've been in that area where you stood in line to get a big box. It's just a big cardboard box of like forty fifty m R e s, right, So everybody got issued a box Mr E's and no Tom and them be like, you know, they're like, oh you know, if you you didn't cleanse your palette first and have all fancy food. I'm like a guy that's like, just give me a burger call to day. Those m R e s were delicious.

I thought they were just on point. And the only the only problem is is they're designed for military there so their meals ready to eat or whatever. But they're designed for someone out in deployment. That means they're high calorie. How does it that you can survive a disaster ended up end up bigger like the guy from Lost, Like, how does that work? Like, I just it's the food is so heavy in the calories um. And I remember

no one wanted the vegetable plate. You know, you had all these like cheesy chicken case of dat and you're like, oh score. I mean you're trading the things you don't want for something that someone else has. So it's like like trading baseball cards. But they're m R e s. Like the Mexican dishes were always like my my Mickey Man, like I would never get rid of, but you always end up with a vegetable plate you can just never get rid of. No one wants to trade it with you.

No one wants to take it. And I think that is the thing emotionally that is missing. I say, when it comes to food security, canned food makes you feel like you're in a disaster. But there's something to be said about comfort food. It reminds you of what it was before. You're getting something that's hot, it's there, it's on a plate. You know, I've been on both sides of the coin a lot. You don't know who you are until you're in that kind of situation, right, but

even then, how far have you've been tested. You don't know who you are until you've been tested. You gotta have a strong sense of family and community, and that's where that dinner table comes out. You know, we we think we're complex human beings, but it don't take much, don't take much to mess up that balance. Then one day after that, people are looting TVs and all kinds

of stuff. It's like this is wild wild West. Just then veneer society and if you brought people together more in a comforting setting where society is still there and the unifying force of the dinner table has always been a society thing. That is the real Facebook. The dinner table is the Facebook before the Internet of anything. This is how you You've got to know people, That's how you connected with people, that's how you became close with people.

It's how you created a community. And emergency management has done at the community level. And I guess, as Tom would say, you know, probably the most important thing is getting around the dinner table again of creating community again, how food can bring people together at the end of the storm and seeing how that happens. And that's what it lures me to this field. That's how I ended up mercy management. You don't like to see suffering, you don't like to see a car wreck, but you look anyway.

It's it's like that with a disaster, you know, and you're kind of in the thick of it, then you realize society is not as advanced as you think it is. The big things that help people in a disaster is not the federal it's not female and and FEMA knows that, and and and it's not to say that the US doesn't respond, because we do. We do. We do more than any other country, I believe, and I'm pried to say that. And it's become a part of me and I'm I'm glad to share it here. You know, often

governance response is just slow and ineffective. And so we'll take a look at the food banks and the NGOs that fill in the gaps, and you know, what does it take to get food on someone's plate in a disaster? What does it actually look like? And how do we get here? After the break, we'll hear from someone on the ground and trin it out and tobago and sort of explore this issue and what happens after disaster relief

is over. We're back. So disaster strikes and you know, the average person that they want to know what they can do, and someone always has that great idea of a can drive and um, but it sounds good, um, And you want to help and you want to do something, and you figure you take a few cans of food and you donate them and you hope that's going to

make a difference. Unfortunately, it really doesn't, UM, because the scale of some of these problems isn't about opening up small little cans of food and dishing them out, and we're talking about a large scale coordination to feed people, and so it is hard to bootstrap um. And you know, and we're talking about feeding thousands of people, not not you know, two or three people. If you know these can drives that you see and you see them always

around Thanksgiving in the holidays. You know it makes you feel good. But I can tell you from talking to people who are running food banks, it's it's just a it's a band aid. It's a band aid on a big problem that can it can It's not gonna do what you think does. So you know, we know that, we know that. And then the absence of a response, you know, you know there's a charitable response, but but

that doesn't work. And the reason it doesn't because it usually runs out pretty quickly, you know, after the weather changes and the workers leave countries and these these localized you know governments are are still picking up the pieces. And so we're gonna talk to people on the ground. In fact, right now we'll go to Carol Beast come who is Trinier out and Tobago and and we're going to talk about what happens after the relief front out. My name is Karen Maskam. I am the creator of

tech Fi agree Um. This is a social enterprise that uses media journalism and communications to support agree use and other stakeholders in the sector, entrepreneurs, etcetera. And this is something we've been doing since twenty elevel. So what happens is so the disaster hits and then you have all these donations, these immediate supplies. You get your you know, your toiletries, your can't good items, you know whatever. People send, human beings, you know, when these things happened. They care

for each other. So you get a lot of things coming in. But sometimes these things go cool missing. Other times they do get distributed and you see them land and then the food never comes. But yet the food is three times as much as it was before the disaster. So the food comes and it's taken by the government and distributed to who they want. And it is literally a top down structure, and it's rampant across the Caribbean. For that type of behavior. We have a crab and

a bound mentality. And this is literally as a result of the government response, which is just poor. When these answers strikes, after the lights and cameras leave, you know, jeesus, a lord of things are still left. You know, you still have to face the long term effects not having access to food or the slow of imports, and it shows all the treumental important dependency is and how important the need for self sustainability and a change in our systems.

My friend and colleague, he and I decided to come up with something called the agre Recovery Kit. The aim of the kid was to help families who are displaced by disaster to grow full at least a portion of it for their household consumption. And so now we have the COVID nineteen situation, which is a disaster in itself. It is called a pandemic. But the effects of this pandemic has been an immediate decrease in the amount of important food that comes in. As we know, it is

so traumatic and so disastrous. But the hurricane everything has gone immediately. But with this, this COVID nineteen, it's in, it's in waves. So we are saying, okay, well we know what to do. We are going to try to make sure that everyone is able to access food. And whether it's a hurricane or COVID, that is what is at stake, not having access to food. Our food systems are still the same way they are, so we need to prepare. We cannot rely on the government to take

care of us. We need to have self sufficiency and so now we are going to be teaching the art of subsistence production. So how do you set seedlings, how do you store water, or how do you cook the food that you grow? At the base of it all, food was the necessity. Literally, nothing can take place without food. One of my colleagues from the Young Leaders of the America's Initiative, in his presentation, he said that the worst feeling a human being can feel is hunger. I understand.

And I was just like, you know, mind blow and that I am in the field because thinking about it, there are times when I I feel like I want to die and I already I just didn't eat for the day, or you know, I didn't eat the night before or whatever, you know, and it's like, what is that is the reality? That is the reality that structural inequality causes. I understand that is the reality we are facing if we entertain these systems that are not working.

You know, it's the reality when the cameras leave. So that's that's all purpose we are simply seeing. Let's be sustainable, let's be regenerated, Let's be proactive, let's be self sufficient. Let's teach the art of subsistence production. There's just no excuse. No because COVID hits, you know, That's how I feel. There's no excuse. We we we just have to keep

I just have to keep going. We've learned in the past twenty years at the world government, they're just not prepared for disasters, for hurricanes, for five as pandemics, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, we've seen it all. But it's during these times of disasters that we have to make sure that that people have food. That's a basic human right, food right. You know, no one chooses to be born into poverty,

No one chooses to be born with disabilities. No one chooses to you know, find themselves elderly without a pension and who are struggling. No one wants to be that that that comes home with PTSD and can't hold down a job. And yet these are the very people that that are are are needing food assistance. And so this pandemic.

I hope what's going to come out on the other side of this is as a greater empathy for people who are struggling, and we can break down the barriers of making decisions as to who should receive benefits and who should get help and who is deserving of it. I'm hoping that that we come out with with a deeper empathy for people who are struggling. I want to thank Christian Castree and Laurie Silverbush from a place at the table, Josie Andreas and Nate muck CEO of World

Central Kitchen, Karen bestco of Tech four Agrie. Thanks to Blame Fisher of Two Lane University. Thank you to our first responders, nurses, doctors and relief workers. Citizen Chef with Me Tom Collichio is a production of I Heart Media. Christopher Hasciotis is our executive producer, Jescelyn Shield Is our researcher, and Gabrielle Collins our producer and editor. Don't forget to subscribe and if you like it, rate us. If you don't like us, RTUs, just subscribe and rate us.