Page 10 - Visions - Program Preview

LEADERS
Chef José Andrés grew up in a Catholic family
in the region of Asturias, Spain. His parents cooked regular daily meals. José’s job in the kitchen was to watch the pan as the family’s paella cooked. Food and faith were central in his home.
“My faith has a lot to do with my life,” he said in an interview with Catholic Exchange. “I was raised in a Catholic family that was always helping and feeding people. ... As a little boy going to religious classes, I thought Jesus was so cool. He could do so much, like make breakfast for fishermen. Jesus cooked it himself.”
As a teenager, José studied cooking under many chefs. He moved to the United States, where he eventually started
his own successful business, which includes more than thirty restaurants and food trucks. Creating and sharing good food is his passion and his calling.
It’s not surprising, then, that Chef José has a simple but powerful reaction when he hears about people who are facing an emergency—a natural disaster or, like
this spring, a worldwide pandemic. He goes to
the site, gathers his chef
Chef José Andrés World Central Kitchen
friends, and starts to cook.
When a disaster happens, Chef José says, people need a safe space to rest, clean water— and a hot plate of food. The latter part is the mission of World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian
organization started by Chef José and his wife, Patricia. They founded WCK in 2010 following the earthquake in Haiti.
WCK has gone to work many times since 2010. Andrés and
a team of chefs arrived four days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017.Within days, WCK set up kitchens around the island, and they eventually produced more than 150,000 meals a day.
During the pandemic, WCK set up a kitchen in Nationals’ baseball stadium to serve meals to people in the Maryland
area who were affected by the COVID-19 virus. Within weeks, WCK kitchens were preparing fresh meals daily in dozens
of American cities. WCK also
purchased meals from restaurants closed by the shutdown
to help them make
it through
the financial loss. WCK volunteers continue to work wherever weather disasters
happen; they also responded immediately to the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. They served meals to refugees
and continue to help families who remain in the country, especially those without heat or electricity.
To learn out more about Chef José and the work of World Central Kitchen, visit wck.org.
With My Family and Friends
Scan here for ¯ parent resources or go to gospelweeklies.com/family
Pray
Thank you, Lord, for sending us an invitation to be a part of your family and to come to your celebration every Sunday! Amen.
Think
Why is Sunday Mass such an important and special celebration?
Act
Look up the Sunday readings and read them before you get to church. See if you find new meanings when you hear the readings again at Mass.
Read the story of Jesus’ beach breakfast in John 21:1–17. How do Chef José and World Central Kitchen do the work that Jesus asks of Peter?
8 • Visions Lesson 4