As the days have passed, one aspect of this tragedy has provided hope — the extraordinary kindness and generosity of thousands of citizens of Los Angeles on display throughout the city. The massiveness and creativity of the response is staggering.
Over the years, World Central Kitchen has been the subject of several Good Food interviews. What began as Jose Andres's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is now a constant drumbeat of worldwide aid. Now, WCK is here, showing up in our community, collaborating with local restaurants and food trucks to feeding our neighbors and first responders. Joining us to explain how they manage this colossal task is Wendy Escobedo, culinary manager of World Central Kitchen.
Evan Kleiman: Hi, Wendy.
Wendy Escobedo: Hi, how are you doing?
Evan Kleiman: Good. We're so grateful that you had time to join us. I'm curious about the timeline. When WCK first saw the fire, what did it do? How quickly did it mobilize? Is there someone whose job is just to monitor emerging disasters?
Wendy Escobedo: As you know, we have a wide network of people. We travel all over the world. And in doing that over these last few years, we've really added to our team. We have team members spread out through all over and we do have some base here in LA. When the fire started, we obviously got the notice, and we immediately activated them to go out and start scouting. We linked up with some of our restaurant partners to get sandwiches and burritos and stuff like that, and they went on the road to start assessing the situation.
For us, it's really important to show up with food in hand. I think it's just a conversation starter. It's also getting people to trust us. And it's really just the beginning of the developing of relationships to see what's going on. But it was great to have them already be here. Then the rest of the team shortly arrived Wednesday to start our work.
Evan Kleiman: When you say your existing partners here in LA, give us an example of who those people are.
Wendy Escobedo: We have a pretty wide net of both restaurant partners, chefs, everyone that wants to give back. What we do, typically, is we focus on local communities. Depending on the area we're in, we want to make sure that we're engaging with those. Obviously, we have some chefs that we've worked for in the past. We were doing meals during COVID. Some of these are pre-existing partners that we've had, like the Border Grill truck. This one has been interesting because we've used a combination of restaurant partners, connections like with Super A Foods right here based out of LA. They were doing burritos for us and hot soup on day one.
For us, it's really, "Hey, can you get me 200 burritos in an hour?" That's the speed at which we want to move when we're trying to assess and trying to show up and respond to disaster.
Evan Kleiman: That's really fascinating that as you're scouting, you're already handing out food. It's so smart. In this particular case, with both the Palisades and the Eaton fires burning simultaneously, and then other smaller fires popping up, what resources did you know you would need? Do you decide how many food trucks and volunteers you need to deploy? Where did you send them initially? And why those locations?
Wendy Escobedo: In terms of knowing how many we need, that is, I think the million dollar question for us. Because every response is different. For us, it's making sure that we have more, that we have enough, and then backstepping. Those first 72 hours are so crucial, both for the people in need, but also for what we can get done in those 72 hours.
At the beginning, you don't know how large the response is going to be. We don't know how many people are displaced, we don't know where they are. We have some partners that we engage with right away, we have some that we put on standby. That's what we did for this response. We had food trucks that were on standby and we were just ready to go. As soon as someone found a location that was somewhere we should bring a food truck, we would just turn them on and get them out there.
I would say, at the beginning of this activation, we probably started with about 15 to 20 restaurant partners or food trucks. The preference for us is bringing a local food truck, maybe a business that the community is already familiar with. And we also want to stimulate that economy.
Chef Kim Prince (second from right) and her team prepared meals of fried chicken, pasta, cornbread and jambalaya from the Dulanville Food Truck. Photo by Elina Shatkin/KCRW
Evan Kleiman: Who are you feeding? And initially, where does it happen? Like with first responders, are you going to where they are mobilizing to get into a fire? Or are you going to feed the evacuees? And given that in LA, the population of these areas is so huge, the number of people that are affected, and the geography is so big, where do you go to meet evacuees if you're doing that?
Wendy Escobedo: It's a combination. One of the things, especially in those first hours, is if we know they're evacuating a certain area, perhaps we know there are certain road closures, we'll start to focus in on the area that we know people are funneling to.
In terms of first responders, a lot of what we do is really just getting into the community and finding where they are. In Palisades, we were able to get to the first responders that are there. They have a refueling station. Although typically they have a main hub where we also feed, we also try to get closer to where they are because, as we know, especially in a response like this, these first responders are working 24 hours shifts. They don't always get to go back and actually grab a meal, so we were able to set up three different food trucks to run 24 hours for them.
That's our goal in most of these situations, is feeding first responders, feeding evacuees but we don't turn anyone away. We're not there to sift through whether they deserve the meal or not. If it's one thing they don't have to think about, then we're happy to provide it for them.
Evan Kleiman: We're famous for our terrible traffic, and people were streaming out of these areas to get to safety. Was traffic a problem?
Wendy Escobedo: In some areas, it definitely was. As you've seen, there were areas where people just had to abandon their cars because they were in back-to-back traffic. The other day, there was an area that some people were allowed to return to. As you know, that usually causes a big line of traffic. So we were able to go out there and start feeding people while they were sitting in line to hopefully get back to see their home and their properties.
Evan Kleiman: How comforting for them. You mentioned giving back to the local economy. Can you describe how the funding works? Does WCK pay the local chefs and food truck providers directly or are they doing this as a donation? In LA, the restaurant community has really been struggling lately.
Wendy Escobedo: It's a combination. Sometimes we have people that reach out and say, "Hey, we just want to donate meals. We just want to give back." And they're not looking for any sort of payment. But when we talk about hiring or bringing on local food trucks and local businesses, the way that works for us is we bring them on as a partner. We agree on a price per meal based on what they're serving, what the situation is, the location. There's a lot of factors to that. Essentially, that's how it works.
It's kind of like we're paying them like if they were catering an event but instead, they are handing out free meals to the community. They set up. We assist them with volunteers and some of our staff to help manage the distribution of meals. Often, we build really great relationships with these partners.
The hope always is, if God forbid there's something in the future, we can move so much faster and just pick up the phone and say, "Hey, can you guys start cooking?"
Evan Kleiman: One of the chefs World Central Kitchen called was LA hometown hero Roy Choi of Kogi fame. Good Food producer Elina Shatkin caught up with Roy in where many Angelenos first met him, at the Kogi truck, which was parked outside Pasadena City College on Sunday.
Roy Choi: My name is Roy Choi from the Kogi truck, and we are feeding. We did this during COVID. The origins and the soul of Kogi is to feed. I think it was Wednesday morning, we woke up, or Tuesday night, I sent the text to my team. And Wednesday morning we woke up, I was like, we just got to go out and start feeding. The first text was, "First responders and all evacuees eat for free." That was the scope of it in my mind, at first. Anyone who comes to the Kogi truck, and if you've been displaced or you're a first responder, you eat for free.
And then luckily, like an angel, World Central Kitchen reached out to us while we were mobilizing, and they wanted to link. So that gave us, like a bigger ship to plug into. And so that's how it all happened. And all that happened probably within four hours.
The burrito is the perfect vessel, I think, for giveaways, because it's fully wrapped, you can give more than one to people, you know. It is really easy transport, and they can put them in their pockets. And, you know, it's Kogi, it's like a flavor bomb. A lot of a lot of folks have been like, when they bite into it, their eyes are just like, it brings a bit of joy within them, especially after having a bunch of turkey sandwiches and stuff, they eat the Kogi real, they're like "Oh, damn!" Sometimes that little bit of joy is what we look for, you know.
Evan Kleiman: Two miles away, on East Washington Boulevard in Pasadena, stood Kim Prince, co-owner of Hotville Chicken and the Dulanville Food Truck, along with Greg Dulan, who owns Dulan's Soul Food Kitchen. For days, the truck has been serving to-go boxes of fried chicken, pasta, cornbread and jambalaya. When producer Elina Shatkin arrived on the scene, cars were pulling up for a meal.
Volunteer: God bless you. There's two in each two in each bag. So be safe. Thank you. Okay.
Evacuee: Have a blessed night. You too. I appreciate you.
Volunteer: We appreciate you.
Kim Prince: We got the call for the Eaton Fire from World Center Kitchen mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the 8th of January. We had less than 24 hours to pull a menu together, get our staff called in, and start rolling up our sleeves to fry a lot of chicken for 400 meals.
Greg Dulan: And the drive, to figure out how we were going to get the meals from Los Angeles to Altadena. Fortunately, we have a beautiful food truck, and so we were able to bring the food truck out, and we cook the meals, hot, fresh on site. We feed people because we love it, and it's even more special when you feed people who really need it. You can see the stress and the hurt and the loss on their faces and their expression of gratitude to us. It was emotional. I mean, we hugged, we've cried, we've felt their pain, and you know, they're going through a lot.
Kim Prince: You know, I was thinking about Miss Paula and a woman named Lily, and the moment I met tonight, named Joanne, and as soon as she got out of her car, I said, how many meals do you need? She walked up, and she said, "I just need one." And then she broke down in tears on me, and then you can't help but to give the instinctive hug. You know, the strangers become kinfolk to us after that. And because we've been doing this for the last five days, we're knowing people by name and face. We recognize their cars when they drive up. They're calling him Mr. Dulan. They're like, hey, and they're waving, "Hey, Kim, you're back again." Yes, and we promised we'll be back. And so I find that it's more than heartwarming to be able to just give.
Greg Dulan: We know that we're making a difference. We know that we're helping people. And that's the best feeling in the world, quite frankly, you know.
Kim Prince: It's like, even with the taste of ash in your mouth and in your nostrils, and we go home smelling like smoke and fire and a little collard greens and fried chicken. It's alright to me.
Chef Kim Prince (second from left) and Greg Dulan (far right) pose with the crew of employees and volunteers who are passing out meals from the Dulanville Food Truck. Photo by Elina Shatkin/KCRW
Evan Kleiman: Over the last week, I've been asked by countless chefs and individuals in the food community, how can we help? So before I got off the line with Wendy Escobedo from World Central Kitchen, I asked her how those who want to support those in need can be of service, and what we should and shouldn't do.
Wendy Escobedo: One of the bigger things in terms of perishable food donations is on our end, we want to make sure that people are being safe. Although we love that people want to make home cooked meals and bring them to shelters and things like that, unfortunately, it's not something that we can always receive because there's obviously food safety regulations that we have to follow.
One of the things I've been saying to a lot of chefs and a lot of people that have reached out is this situation is going to be long-term. And we need to start thinking that way, in terms of how we can give back to the community, not just in the immediate emergency phase, but what it looks like for LA and the community, moving forward. So that's something that we've discussed, of maybe different kinds of partnerships, or how other restaurants can maybe make their own restaurant a community hub where people may be able to go for meals.
I think the other thing is just really staying in touch with any shelters or areas that are housing people in your community and reaching out to them and maybe being more specific with them as to what their needs are. Because I think shelters and stuff are inundated as well with people dropping off donations and like that but sometimes they don't have the volunteers or the staff to be able to sort through that. It can get a little out of hand. So what we've been saying to everyone and relaying the message that we've been getting from the shelters, as well, is: Reach out to us and we'll share a list of the things we need, so that we can all kind of chip in the right places.
Evan Kleiman: I think we've all experienced a moment when you see a photo or you hear a story, and it just makes you break down. What is that moment like for your chefs and organizers?
Wendy Escobedo: I can tell you this, that for every moment that we've had that's been overwhelming or upsetting, there are those very small moments throughout your day, and I can give you an example. When we were at one of the shelters a few days ago, initially, there were a lot of people that flooded to the shelter, and they were just trying to accommodate them as they could. As the days went on, they started organizing a little more. They set up like a kid section and things like that. When I went in there the other day, there was a woman that came in and volunteered her time as a clown, and she was doing balloon animals. I got to go over there and spend 15, 20 minutes with those kids. All of the work that we do and all of the stress and all of the sadness and those difficult moments that we have, those 15 minutes that I got to spend with those kids and knowing what we're able to provide for people, are totally worth everything else.
Evan Kleiman: I can't thank you enough for joining us. Wendy, thank you so much.
Wendy Escobedo: Yeah, no, thank you.