Free Rides by Uber
notes: label: Description
content: This poster advertised free transportation to and from the kitchen and Resource Center operated by World Central Kitchen (WCK) during the government shutdown in January 2019. After opening a pop-up kitchen to serve meals for federal employees affected by the shutdown, Chef José Andrés and WCK teamed up with several local and national businesses and nonprofits to launch a Resource Center next door on Pennsylvania Avenue. Offering free rides through Uber allowed federal workers in the greater Washington D.C. area to access the meals, household items, and financial guidance provided by WCK without worrying about transportation costs.
label: Description
content: After immigrating to the United States in 1990 at age 21, José Andrés established and expanded several restaurants in and around the Washington, D.C. area, including the popular tapas restaurant Jaleo. He founded World Central Kitchen in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where the organization prepared and distributed food to Haitians as they recovered from the disaster. In addition to its work feeding islanders in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, WCK has supplied food for first responders and families after several different fires in California in South Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018, and to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and India (2020-2021).
label: Description
content: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history began on December 22, 2018, when a disagreement on an appropriations bill delayed the passage of funding for the 2019 fiscal year. Around 800,000 federal employees, including National Park Service staff, members of the Coast Guard, workers at NASA, and FDA inspectors were furloughed or required to work without pay.
label: Description
content: In response, Chef Andrés and his organization set up near the United States Navy Memorial to provide meals, groceries, and toiletries for federal families impacted. Known for its ability to marshal private sector resources to support emergency relief, WCK had distributed over 100,000 meals and served over 11,000 people through the pop-up kitchen and Resource Center by the time federal employees were able to access their delayed paychecks in February 2019.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2019.0031.05
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0031.05
label: accession number
content: 2019.0031
objectType: label: Object Name
content: poster
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 40 in x 29 1/2 in x 1/4 in; 101.6 cm x 74.93 cm x .635 cm