‘Calling out KY’s culinary army’: World Central Kitchen sets up in Eastern KY, needs chefs
READ MORE
Flooding in Eastern Kentucky
“Catastrophic” flash flooding hit parts of Eastern Kentucky July 28, 2022.
Expand All
World Central Kitchen, which provides food to areas in dire need from tornado-ravaged Mayfield to war-torn Ukraine, is now in Eastern Kentucky.
The organization run by chef Jose Andres has set up a hub in Hazard in Perry County at 301 Perry Circle Road and is signing up chefs and other volunteers in shifts to fix sandwiches and meals for those impacted by the catastrophic flooding.
Central Kentucky chef Ouita Michel, who operates several restaurants in and around Lexington, put out the word on her social media over the weekend.
“Calling out KY’s culinary army,” Michel posted, with a link to the sign-up page. “Chef hands ARE needed. Food will be distributed.”
World Central Kitchen is coordinating locations in multiple counties including at the Isom IGA in Letcher County.
According to WCK, a kitchen staffed with volunteers prepared hot meals that were delivered to 19 locations over the weekend.
Sam Bloch, WCK director of emergency response, posted on social media that the Isom IGA, the only grocery story for about 20 miles, had been flooded and lost all its inventory.
Bloch said it would serve as a distribution center for the community until the store is up and running.
“We’ve got four teams in the region, a lot of smaller townships like this, pretty spread out in the Appalachian mountains here, that have all been really badly affected,” Bloch said in the video posted on July 29. “We’ve got a team a little farther north, in Hazard and they’re setting up a large-scale production kitchen there. And we’ll be back tomorrow with some hot meals.”
To donate directly to the World Central Kitchen, go to wck.org.
Mercy Chefs serving hot meals in Whitesburg
A separate organization, Mercy Chefs, also has deployed to Whitesburg to provide daily meal service. According to a news release, the non-profit will serve lunch and dinner daily at Letcher County Central High School, 435 Cougar Drive, Whitesburg.
Based in Virginia, Mercy Chefs has served more than 20 million meals since its founding in 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They began serving in Kentucky on July 30. Their community kitchen in Paducah is preparing bakery items to transport into the flooded region.
“It’s times like this that we feel so blessed to have bases strategically placed across the country,” said Gary LeBlanc, founder and CEO of Mercy Chefs. “With the help of our community kitchen in the western part of the state, we can quickly and efficiently provide support to the families impacted by the flooding.
“We are committed to serving hot meals—and a helping of hope—to victims and first responders.”
To donate, go to mercychefs.com/ky-floods. There is a sign up on that site for local volunteers as well.
Hot meals, water at Hindman Settlement School
The Hindman Settlement School at 51 Center St. in Hindman in Knott County has set up a distribution center for water, cleaning supplies, non-perishable food and personal products.
Chef Kristin M. Smith of Wrigley Taproom in Corbin and Amber Lawrence of FoodChain and Smithtown Seafood in Lexington set up grills to prepare hot meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available.
FoodChain also is gathering supplies in Lexington for Eastern Kentucky flood relief.
Ice cream for Eastern Kentucky
Crank & Boom Ice Cream has launched a special flavor, Kentucky Strong Charity Pint, to raise money for the Hindman Settlement School. The pints are $12, with $4 directly benefiting the school. Those interested can pre-ordera pint online at crankandboom.com through Aug. 5 and pick up Aug. 12-18.
According to a news release, “the flavor will be ‘gingerbread festival’ in honor of the Knott County Gingerbread Festival in Hindman. It’s our Cinnamon Ice Cream stuffed full of our homemade spice cookies. AKA Spice Cookie Crumble!”
This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 10:12 AM.
.png)
