They Fed an Island: A Case Study Approach to Understanding the World Central Kitchen's Emergency Food Operation, #ChefsForPuertoRico

Abstract

Academic literature explores or analyzes multiple facets of disaster relief efforts provided by the Federal government, local government, private industry, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Promisingly, a small but growing section of literature examining the role of emergency food systems and emergency food operations seeks to explain the important contributions these systems and operations make to disaster response efforts. Of note, scholars have yet to explore the role of the nongovernmental organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) or study José Andrés and the leadership he displayed during the 2017 Hurricane Maria relief effort. Utilizing a case study analysis method, this thesis interprets data from multiple sources, including José Andrés own book, We Fed an Island, in which he provides an autobiographical account of what he and his organization, World Central Kitchen, accomplished, newspaper articles that were written during the three month period of the response/relief effort (and for months after), reviews of his book, in which reviewers provide further context on his account of the World Central Kitchen’s response, and interviews in which Andrés and critical team members who participated in the response give insights to the event in their own words. Thenn, a literature review is conducted to gain insights into the current structure of federal disaster response and recommended state, local, and private sector practices and to uncover gaps in the literature. Additionally, the National Response Framework and the World Central Kitchen Model will be used to guide and identify critical factors that help provide a robust answer to the following questions: how did WCK, led by José Andrés, a celebrity chef with seemingly minimal emergency disaster preparedness experience, successfully execute and scale up a food-related disaster response in a community he did not reside in? Secondly, what does the answer to that question suggest regarding potential lessons learned from WCK's emergency response model and its applicability to future emergency food aid efforts? Lastly, while often credited with “creating a new model” for disaster response regarding food aid, this thesis seeks to determine whether this is true. And if so, what is the new model? This thesis aims to answer these questions.