World Central Kitchen, a relief organization that provides meals after humanitarian crises and weather disasters, said Tuesday it has served more than 64,000 meals in the aftermath of Helene.
Thirty-five food trucks are in operation, and the group is setting up field kitchens in Asheville, North Carolina, and Clearwater, Florida, according to an email from World Central Kitchen. Thirty-two of the trucks are in Georgia and Florida where more than 41,000 meals and 2,600 sandwiches have been served.
“These moments are hard for everybody, but every day I believe will get better, every day will be a little bit better than yesterday,” World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night from Asheville. “This (effort) is massive. We are going to places that by car will take us four and five and six hours. We’re using helicopters because we can get there in 10 or 20 minutes.”
The organization is working with 16 restaurant partners in North Carolina and Tennessee, according to the email. More than 23,000 meals have been served in Tennessee and North Carolina.
“We’ll be ramping our hot meal distribution up very shortly as our kitchens come online,” World Central Kitchen said in the email.
Andres said relief efforts at the Asheville airport, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard, “is something quite frankly I’ve never seen” in his 15 years running the organization.
Five water tankers capable of carrying 6,200 gallons were sent to western North Carolina because shortages caused by infrastructure damage, according to World Central Kitchen.
Arthur Blank, owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United, recently donated $2 million to the organization.