every time you have a disaster, you bring the different experts into different areas for the reconstruction, for the relief process. So you need to understand that if you have to rebuild homes that you'll bring architects. If you need to take care of people in the hospitals, you bring more help with doctors. If you have to feed people, it's only very normal and logical to me that you will bring cooks. And that's what we do. Kitchens, restaurants are chaos. And chefs, restaurant people - we manage chaos very well. After a hurricane, it's a lot of chaos. And people go hungry, and people go thirsty. And what we are very good at is understanding the problem and adapting. And so a problem becomes an opportunity. That's why I think chefs more and more - you're going to be seeing more of us in these situations. We're practical. We're efficient. We can do it quicker, faster and better than anybody (via)

Humility : using one’s gifts and talents for the benefit of others, not themselves.

Jose Andres and his team of leaders are a great example to us all of how we can and should pursue our loves, our passions, and our dreams. And then, when trials come, when disaster strikes and people are in need, we give away our gifts, resources - whatever - for the benefit of others. Because it’s the right thing to do. Because it’s the human thing to do. And because that’s why we were given them in the first place: to give it away.

I'm only as good as the people I had around me. And happens, it seems, I became the leader. But actually, we had 25,000 leaders. We had young girls - one girl called Lola that will - while his mother and father were around the island on their food truck giving food away in faraway, remote, forgotten neighborhoods, that young girl was staying behind in the headquarters leading a 1,000-people unit of sandwich makers, making sure that everybody was working hard, working fast and working efficient. Lola is 10 years old. We had leaders everywhere.
If a 10-year-old can be leading hundreds of men and women in a moment of need, making sandwiches, imagine what we should be expecting from our president or from the governor or from our fellow congressmen and senators. If a young girl was able to show leadership in a moment of disrepair, what should we expect from our elected leaders? If you want to lead, lead. But you need to be leading in the good moments but especially in the moments of darkness.

Damn.

You can read more about World Central Kitchen on their website or Jose Andres book, We Fed and Island. You can also join his crew of leaders or help donate to the cause.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff : Humanity : Other kitchens serving 40,000 meals a day