On just the 3rd day, the trainees were already baking 600 rolls. Here, two of the trainees watch Chef Rick Billings mix and pour batter.

As our Executive Director, Brian MacNair, travels around Haiti to our various project sites, ThinkFoodGroup Chefs Rick Billings and Andrew Nelson have been busy training 4 bakers and 2 assistants from Zamni Beni Orphanage in their newly equipped baking facility. Although the trainees are between the ages of 14-21, after just a week of training they are already baking rolls, loaves, and cornbread by themselves. ”The training was amazing. The class was so eager to learn and caught on quickly. I can’t wait to come back,” says Chef Rick Billings.

Our May newsletter will be coming out soon with more updates and photos from Haiti. If you have not already, SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to see what has been on the menu for World Central Kitchen this month, and what to look forward to in June.

Marie Josey, a trainee scouting out the new bakery facility

In about a week, our Executive Director, Brian MacNair, will be joined by ThinkFoodGroup Chefs Rick Billings and Andrew Nelson in Haiti, where they will be running a 5 day program at the Zamni Beni orphanage in Croix des Bouquets. As part of World Central Kitchen’s commitment to sustainable solutions to hunger, the Chefs will be focusing on training the future bakers on using local, cost effective products to make breads for the orphanage. Once the bakery is up and running, it will not only help feed the children at the Zamni Beni orphanage, but will also sell its baked products to surrounding communities to support their philanthropic efforts.

Stay tuned for photos and updates by following us on Twitter and or Facebook!

Don’t miss out on what José Andrés has been up to and what World Central Kitchen has been cooking up! SUBSCRIBE today to get our newsletter coming out later this week.

Making healthy meals in Palmiste Tampe

Thanks to our generous supporters, we have surpassed our goal of raising $10,000 to build a school canteen in Palmiste Tampe, and have raised $11,300 toward this Life Changing Project.

This project still has Phase B - Training on Clean Cook Stoves, and Building a Community Garden for the residents to grow their own food - making this entire project a one-time investment that will sustain this community forever!

Be sure to check back for updates on this, and our other projects next month, as our team will be going back to Haiti.

If you have not already, SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter. Look out for what José Andrés has been up to as culinary ambassador of the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves in our April issue.

José Andrés preparing meals with women in Palmiste Tampe

While these women prepare meals, their children spend up to 4 hours a day searching for wood to cook that meal with.

World Central Kitchen is fixing that.

By building a kitchen for a school in Palmiste Tampe, training the local mothers to cook with clean cook stoves, and teaching the community to grow their own food- We are changing their lives forever.

You can be apart of that Change!

We have reached $5,875 of our 10k goal. Empower this community by helping us reach our 10k goal TODAY!

Haitian schoolboys waiting for their new lunch spot

Help us feed 300 school kids in Palmiste Tampe, Haiti while allowing the entire community to produce their own food, cook cleaner, and live healthier.

Each donation goes towards providing:
• rain water collection system
• solar stoves
• reduced emission clean cook stoves
• sinks
• storage
• prep tables
• utensils
• tables and chairs
• training on clean cookstoves and kitchen hygiene

José Andrés joined President Clinton, Former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, Chef Mario Batali, and others as they toured a variety of businesses that are focused on utilizing Haiti’s own agriculture for production of products.

Utilizing local agriculture and creating jobs are main focuses of World Central Kitchen, and the initiative by the Clinton Foundation ties in perfectly with WCK’s core beliefs.

Brian MacNair, new Executive Director of World Central Kitchen, talks with Mama G of Palmiste Tampe about her upcoming clean cook stove training with World Central Kitchen.

Donate today to help support this school kitchen for 300 kids and the community center and garden that will change the lives of this community of 1000, forever.

KITCHEN = EDUCATION

As this community cooks for their children in their new kitchen – built by WCK, their children will go back to school – and with full bellies and active minds.

On our way to the seaside we passed through a local market to buy some chicken, mangoes and avocados. In just one hour-and-a-half from Port au Prince, we’ll be in Bois Neuf. An amazing area on the beach with clean blue water such as the one we would expect in Dominican Republic. We passed by the Club Indigo Resort at Gonaives, some chicken farms, water lands, mango trees, sugar plantations, and hibiscus flowers everywhere. Isn’t this the true Haiti? We got to Bois Neuf and lay on the beach surrounded by impeccable houses that would make you think of The Bahamas, or any other country in the Caribbean, but hey .. we were still in Haiti!

A fisherman came by and offered us some lambi. “How many do you want?” He asked. “How many do you have?” we responded.  “Oh madam, I will just go and catch them fresh for you”. Two hours later we were enjoying fresh grilled lambi with lemon spicy sauce. Could it be another way of experiencing paradise?  Well, this is Haiti.

Not too many times stories about the beauty of Haiti’s nature, and the strength and resilience of their people, are told. We need to realize the potential of Haiti and envision its brighter future.

—The Haiti Bug

I arrived to Port-au-Prince. Getting down the plane, we listened to local music sponsored by a well-established telecommunication company. The rhythm was joyful and made you start your journey with a smile.  Out of the airport, children were not begging in the streets —like in many other developing countries. Children in Haiti were perfectly uniformed and well on their way to school. What a sense of dignity we felt just observing them while they walked the long road to school.

We went to visit the local market guided by our friend Christine who lives in Port-au-Prince. As we walked we could see people who sat on the streets, carried goods and produce, brought charcoal, and fried food.  No matter the time of day, seems like streets were crowded, with sidewalks packed with vendors of all types. Vendors sat for hours until they got what they needed to keep going for one more day.  We checked-in at our hotel; there were not many hotel vacancies in Haiti but we always manage to get a room … yes this is Haiti… miracles happen! Hopefully soon many investors will come, will build some hotels here, will buy goods from these vendors, and will get fruits and vegetables from local framers.

At 1pm it was time to eat. So many choices: local food, modern international food, Italian pizza. I went for poulet and banan pessez. Yes, chicken with fried bananas! and some “pickleez” please!!  For dessert how about passion fruit sorbet…or cherry juice? We needed to keep working so this time I passed on the Rhum Sour.

—The Haiti Bug

There are 925 million undernourished people in the world today. That means one in seven people do not have sufficient access to food to lead a healthy active life. In fact, hunger and malnutrition are the top health risk factors— greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Each day, hunger claims the lives of 25,000 people or one every three and a half seconds, primarily among children. Progress has been made in the last 20 years, but with 925 million long-suffering people still crying for help, progress has not come far enough.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) demonstrates how food trucks are not just a fad, but  a tool to provide accessible and nutritious food for those affected by natural disasters such as El Derecho – the storm that hit the DC Metropolitan area on June 29^th.

With many residents without power, PEPE teamed up with radio station 94.7’s Tommy McFly the following Monday to serve those in need.  Parked at the Silver Spring Long Branch Library cooling station, PEPE distributed gallons of water and approximately 150 lunches of gazpacho, flautas de jamon and potato chips to families without power.

Nearly a week after the storm, on July 5^th, PEPE set out to the Anacostia Salvation Army Center, a popular  relief center throughout the crisis.  In merely a few hours PEPE served  nearly 250 individuals seeking food assistance at the center.

PEPE’s first time dishing out disaster relief as a WCK initiative proved to be successful in offering hundreds of people cool water and traditional Spanish fare over the days following the storm.  Local efforts to ensure food security via PEPE exemplifies WCK’s ingenuity and commitment to rapid response in alleviating hunger and supporting food security.

Washington, DC – (September 13, 2011) – The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves announced today that Chef José Andrés will serve as Culinary Ambassador, helping to raise awareness of the death, sickness and injury caused by toxic smoke from cooking stoves in developing countries. Two million people globally die each year from illnesses such as pneumonia, chronic lung disease and cancer – all due to exposure to smoke from harmful and inefficient cooking and heating practices. The vast majority of deaths are among women and children.

“I have seen this silent killer first hand, and I am therefore honored to join the Alliance in helping to raise additional awareness,” said Chef José Andrés. “Shortly after the earthquake, I went to Haiti to assist in humanitarian relief efforts, and saw that the grinding poverty they live with day-to-day had been exacerbated by dirty cooking conditions in overcrowded and unsafe tent cities.”

Every day, nearly 3 billion people eat food that was prepared using a crude cookstove or open fire – typically fueled by biomass such as wood, charcoal or dung – in homes with poor or no ventilation. Exposure to smoke from these stoves has been categorized by the World Health Organization as the fifth biggest health risk in developing countries.

Chef José Andrés continued, “I formed World Central Kitchen to provide innovative solutions to alleviate hunger throughout the developing world, including the deployment of clean and innovative cooking solutions because for too many women and children in Haiti and elsewhere, the danger and difficulty of cooking has reached a crisis point. I am committed to working with Secretary Hillary Clinton, Global Ambassador Julia Roberts and the Alliance’s many partners to ensure that this issue is on the agenda of advocates, chefs, business-owners and policymakers worldwide.”

“Chef José Andrés’ passion for economic and social empowerment through sustainable, safe and clean cooking practices in developing countries has few rivals,” said Radha Muthiah, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. “World Central Kitchen’s work will help the Alliance reach its goal of 100 million homes adopting clean and efficient household cooking and heating solutions by 2020.”

“As Culinary Ambassador, Chef José Andrés will be an instrumental partner in realizing a future in which open fires and dirty stoves are replaced by clean, efficient and affordable stoves and fuels all over the world,” said Kris M. Balderston, State Department Special Representative for Global Partnerships. “His commitment won’t just save lives; it will improve the lives and livelihoods of countless women across the globe.”

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About Chef José Andrés:

Chef José Andrés was named the 2011 Outstanding Chef by the James Beard Foundation. He is founder of World Central Kitchen and owner and partner of ThinkFoodGroup, which includes celebrated restaurants in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He is a television personality, author and food policy advocate. Andrés is also Chairman Emeritus for DC Central Kitchen and teaches on Science and Cooking at Harvard. Visit www.thinkfoodgroup.com for more information.

About the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves:

Launched by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2010, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a United Nations Foundation-led public-private partnership to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking and heating solutions. The Alliance’s ‘100 by 20’ goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance will work with public, private and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment and use of clean cookstoves in developing countries. Visit www.cleancookstoves.org or www.cookingshouldntkill.orgfor more information.

About World Central Kitchen:

World Central Kitchen is a non-profit organization based in Washington DC led by chef Jose Andres with the ultimate goal of alleviating hunger in both countries affected by chronic food crisis and countries affected by natural disasters.  In this context World Central Kitchen will develop a series of interconnected activities leading to the achievement of this goal. World Central Kitchen will operate in countries affected by natural disasters and chronic food insecurity by cooking for and feeding vulnerable people, supporting the local agriculture economy through local food purchases, and promoting nutritious foods, recipes, and optimal use of environmentally sustainable cooking fuels and technologies.

World Central Kitchen is built around research and investigation that will help the organization meet its objectives. World Central Kitchen will partner with key stakeholders in areas relating to the following: (i) monitoring changes in climate and other facts to forecast upcoming natural disasters (ii) improved sustainable energy cooking methods, (iii) regarding the effective affordable and suitable use of energy efficient cooking technologies. A primary reason for developing a research agenda in these areas is to overcome the current data deficit which brings the opportunity to empirically prove the effectiveness in specific projects their adaptation capacity and speed the interventions.

World Central Kitchen intends to alleviate the negative offset of permanent food aid campaigns. WCK intends to develop social business models based on cooking with local and diversified products and obtaining revenues for such cooking. Locals will become the beneficiaries and main drivers of the projects designed by WCK so that after the execution phase, the needs of the targeted people will be covered in a sustainable manner. This approach will contribute to improve the labor market while transferring the projects’ ownership to locals according to their needs and culture.

If you’ve never traveled in villages and rural areas of the developing world, it is difficult to imagine that nearly 3 billion people still cook with primitive technologies from earlier centuries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that almost 2 million people die from being exposed to toxic smoke from cooking with wood and other unclean fuels. The majority of those deaths are women and children.

Smoke from cookstoves contributes to a host of chronic illnesses and acute health impacts, including early childhood pneumonia, emphysema, cataracts, lung cancer, bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight.

Not to mention the devastation to the environment from deforestation, which can lead to flooding and other disasters.

In addition, women who cook with wood spend hours gathering fuel for cooking, taking them away from educational or business opportunities, and putting them at a safety risk as they often travel miles away from home.