By Jorge Garcia and Rollo Ross
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Spanish chef Jose Andres rolled his World Central Kitchen food aid organization into Los Angeles as wildfires burned on Thursday and advocated that politics be put aside to take care of the people impacted by disaster.
“Like every place in the world, there are people with ways and means, and people without them. But you have to be there with all the people, no matter what,” said Andres, who is based in the United States.
“Everybody needs support and love in these moments. Wealthy or not, poor or not. It is the right thing to do. So you try to make sure nobody is left behind or forgotten.”
On the side of a truck, a sign offered “Free food, chicken or shrimp” and several first responders lined up for a meal.
“Are you going to blame the political party of the moment? Can we stop blaming and start building and working together?” Andres asked.
“Bringing the best out of all of us and creating good policy that happens is good politics.”
Andres added that “climate change is real, if someone wants to say it’s not.”
“You can say these things are happening randomly, but climate change has a lot to do with it,” he added.
He said there are more hurricanes, typhoons and floods, which he recently saw up close in North Carolina and the Spanish city of Valencia.
“So let’s fix it. Let’s make sure we don’t forget the people of Puerto Rico, or the people of Katrina or the people of North Carolina,” he said.
“Let’s make sure we put politics aside and take care of the people and solve the problems one plate of food at a time. I think everyone will agree with me on that.”
(Reporting by Jorge Garcia and Rollo Ross in Los Angeles; Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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