World Central Kitchen Enters Fifth Month of COVID-19 Emergency Food Relief Effort at Nationals Park, Receives Donation from SGN Community

AUGUST 5, 2020

World Central Kitchen Enters Fifth Month of COVID-19 Emergency Food Relief Effort at Nationals Park, Receives Donation from SGN Community

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2020

Emergency food relief is a team sport. No one understands that better than World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit organization that uses the power of food to heal communities and strengthen economies during times of crisis and beyond. “Omniwin partnerships are more important now than ever,” said 5th Element CEO Jim Van Eerden. “Stories from the frontlines where Some Good News is happening can inspire more of the same.”

For WCK relief team chef Mollie Moore, co-leader of the Nationals Park meal delivery effort that for more than twenty-two weeks has produced and delivered tens of thousands of free meals every week, it’s the community that really makes things go. “We’ve got a pretty core and hardcore group of volunteers,” said Moore.

Contract chefs from local restaurants work alongside these volunteers, many of them furloughed due to COVID-19 closures. Together, since mid-March the team at Nationals Park has served over three quarters of a million meals.

The team behind the team begins with the Lerner family, the only owner of a major league sports facility in the United States to donate the use of their kitchens for COVID-19 food relief. The kitchen staff are kept well-fed with gifts from local restaurant partners, as well as friends and family. “There was a period where there was not a single day without a baked good,” said Moore. And this week the operation was bolstered by a donation from the SGN community, in partnership with The Starbucks Foundation.

World Central Kitchen lead relief chef Mollie Moore prepares the day's hot meal at Nationals Park. Photo by World Central Kitchen/wck.org

The SGN Store, created by Some Good News (hosted in its first season by John Krasinski), is managed by Sevenly.org, which donates all proceeds from purchases of Some Good Merch to organizations including World Central Kitchen. These donations are then matched by The Starbucks Foundation, which has committed to match up to $1 million of SGN Store donations for COVID-19 relief efforts through the end of the year. This partnership between SGN and The Starbucks Foundation is coordinated by 5th Element Group.

Like a hot cup of coffee, a hot meal lifts the spirit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, World Central Kitchen has activated thousands of restaurants and kitchens to feed marginalized and vulnerable communities and the brave medical professionals on the front lines. WCK knows that a nourishing meal in a time of crisis is so much more than a plate of food, it’s hope, it’s dignity, it’s a sign that someone cares about you and that you are not alone. According to Moore, volunteers are drawn to food relief in part because “they understand what a hot meal can do for a person, it can change their day, change their week, just knowing that 100% of an unemployment check doesn’t have to go to food.”

Sesame chicken stir fry over rice, in Nationals Park. Photo by World Central Kitchen/wck.org