International celebrity chef Jose Andres is cementing his reputation for responding to national disasters, tweeting that his nonprofit World Central Kitchen arrived Sunday evening to prepare and deliver food to the passengers on board the Grand Princess cruise ship after it docks at the Port of Oakland today.
Eater picked up the tweet this morning, and Andres writes, "Ready to support State of California, @PrincessCruises & all Americans during these difficult times. Today we are helping send food supplies to #GrandPrincess on vessel Miss Tammy!"
Andres further seemed to criticize the government effort to evacuate the ship and quarantine passengers, tweeting this morning that the sick should be evacuated to two hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and the USNS Comfort, and "Healthy individuals can come to shore." He added that "food should only be prepared outside the Ships," saying, "I can not believe we still don’t have a protocol in place."
There are 21 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection on the ship, 19 of which are crew members. All of the infected will be transferred to isolation units at hospitals, and the remaining 1,100 crew members are then going to be quarantined on the ship while the 2,400 passengers head to quarantines on military bases around the country.
Passengers have complained to different media outlets in recent days that the situation on the ship had been devolving and food supplies were running low. So the fresh meals from World Central Kitchen will be gladly welcomed. The total disembarkation process is expected to last a couple of days after the ship docks.
Andres founded WCK almost ten years ago with his wife Patricia, but it did not become internationally known until the chef himself joined the relief effort in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in September 2017. The nonprofit's mission is simply to provide "a hot plate of food when it's needed most" in areas touched by disaster. Last fall, WCK responded to the Saddleridge Fire in Los Angeles County, and earlier in the year, in July, the organization came to feed affected families and first responders after the Ridgecrest earthquakes.
Below is WKC's year-in-review video for 2019.