World Central Kitchen T-Shirt
notes: label: Description
content: Chef José Andrés wore this black t-shirt while announcing food relief for furloughed federal employees during the government shutdown in early 2019. The front of the shirt identifies Andrés as a member of the “Chef Relief Team” with “World Central Kitchen” and its logo printed below, while the back bears the initiative’s hashtag, “Chefs for Feds.” Responding to what he deemed “another type of disaster emergency,” Chef Andrés and a local team of chefs, volunteers, and businesses opened a kitchen on Pennsylvania Avenue and served over 100,000 meals to federal workers and their families from January 15 until February 7, 2019. Chef Andrés donated this item along with several other artifacts to the Smithsonian after he was awarded the Julia Child Award in 2019.
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 the nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK) in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where the organization prepared and distributed food to Haitians in need. 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. In response, Chef Andrés and his organization set up near the United States Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC, to provide meals on-site and to-go for federal families affected. Additionally, WCK partnered with several local and national businesses and nonprofits to distribute groceries, diapers, and other essentials with their #ChefForFeds Resource Center.
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: 2019.0224.03
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0224.03
label: accession number
content: 2019.0224
objectType: label: Object Name
content: t-shirt
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall (flat): 29 1/4 in x 22 1/4 in; 74.295 cm x 56.515 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall (sleeves): 10 in; 25.4 cm