The nonprofit World Central Kitchen travels the world to provide hot meals to people in disaster zones. While that work has included places in the U.S., St. Louisan Kate Dozier, who’s been with the World Central Kitchen Chef Corps the past few years and traveled as far as Turkey, said volunteering in St. Louis is something she hadn’t imagined.
“I honestly never thought I would be doing this work in my own hometown,” Dozier told St. Louis on the Air. “[But] we go everywhere that is needed — any country, any state, any city.”
Tom Schmidt, whose restaurant Salt + Smoke joined the World Central Kitchen corps in March after tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in Rolla, echoed Dozier’s sentiments. He also affirmed how ready local partners were to get involved.
“We hate that it's in our own community but we have really great, large teams that can facilitate [getting] even more meals to people in need,” he said. ”We're able to produce a ton with all of the support from our teams and volunteers — that we've never met — showing up to help us put these boxes together,” Schmidt said.
Qui Tran, owner of Mai Lee and Nudo, was contacted by World Central Kitchen the day after the tornado to join its corps and facilitate connections to restaurant owners and chefs. He said he was amazed by how quickly the organization was able to put boots on the ground. The care people outside the restaurant industry showed amazed him, too.
“I feel like a switchboard right now, but in the best way. So many people who are not in the restaurant business have reached out: ‘How can I donate? What can I do? How can I help?’ I’m just so proud of this city for that,” Tran said.
“When you’ve basically lost everything and you’re trying to recoup whatever it is you have left, sometimes you’re in a bad state of mind and you just don’t think about eating,” Tran added. “So a warm meal can hopefully bring some kind of comfort.”
So far, World Central Kitchen has worked with more than 25 restaurants and others who produce food. A half-dozen organizations have helped box and distribute 17,950 meals.
Schmidt said this work goes far beyond giving someone a hot lunch or dinner.
“The stories from yesterday of people sitting and hugging and being present for each other is impactful in ways that [go] beyond a meal,” he said.
Distribution sites are currently in O’Fallon Park, Fountain Park, the East Loop and the Ville neighborhoods. Meals are distributed by volunteers dispatched from those sites between noon and 2 p.m.
Depending on daily assessments of need, distribution sites could be moved to different neighborhoods. Currently, there’s no end date for World Central Kitchen’s time in St. Louis. “We never go into any disaster area with an end date in mind,” Dozier said. “We are actually just starting to ramp up what we're doing in this community. We stay as long as the need exists.”
World Central Kitchen continues to look for local volunteers.
To hear the full conversation, which includes insights into how the tornado put challenges faced by St. Louis restaurateurs, chefs and industry employees into perspective — and what’s keeping local restaurant owners going, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
