Celebrity chef José Andres, a frequent critic of President Trump, will open one of his World Central Kitchen feeding sites in DC on Wednesday to feed government workers and their families during the partial government shutdown.
“Big news! We will open a kitchen on Pennsylvania Ave this week to join private sector effort to feed federal employees during the shutdown. It’s only fair to feed Americans in need!” Andres wrote on Twitter Monday.
In a video accompanying the tweet, Andres said “today we face an emergency in the United States” and that “we believe that no person should have to go through the pain of not knowing what to feed the children.”
Andres, a native of San Juan who had also set up feeding sites in Puerto Rico and Houston after hurricanes ravaged the areas, said no one should have to go hungry because of the partial government shutdown.
“We’re going to be open for any federal family that needs food. We will have food for you to eat or food for you to take home,” he said in the video.
“World Central Kitchen is always there to respond to any disaster to make sure Americans and people around the world will not go one day without food. Today, we face another type of disaster emergency in the United States.”
He also called for Congress and Trump to unite to solve the situation.
“It will also be a call to action for our senators and congressmen, and especially President Trump, to make sure that we and in this moment in the history of America where families are about to go hungry, we should always come together as we the people, as Americans, bi-partisan, Republicans and Democrats, all Americans,” Andres said.
Andrés has already been handing out free sandwiches to furloughed workers from his restaurants in the capital during the shutdown.
Andres at one time was set to open a restaurant in Trump’s DC hotel — but abruptly pulled out after the president’s 2015 attacks on Mexicans as criminals and racists.
Trump sued, Andres countersued, and the cases were settled out of court.
