Thomas Fire: Volunteer program providing healthy meals to displaced families (original) (raw)

Camarillo resident Marcella Miserendino was devastated to see so many Ventura County residents displaced by the ongoing Thomas Fire and was determined to make a difference.

Once her children’s schools reopened, Miserendino, 32, began searching for an organization that was helping victims of the fire. It wasn’t long before she found herself volunteering at the World Central Kitchen in the San Buenaventura Mission in downtown Ventura, which is currently cooking, packaging and delivering food to displaced families throughout the region.

“I’ve been itching to help out and I had the time to volunteer,” Miserendino, 32, said. “It’s heartwarming to see people come together and donate their time and effort to helping others.”

Miserendino is one of a handful of volunteers spending large portions of their week helping the World Central Kitchen provide thousands of meals to those affected by the recent fire.

As of Monday, the Thomas Fire was in its eighth day and had already burned more than 230,000 acres and destroyed more than 600 homes, most of them in Ventura.

The Washington D.C.-based organization, formed by noted chef José Andrés seven years ago in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, works to provide healthy food to families and individuals touched by disasters, such as the Thomas Fire that has impacted about 80,000 residents in the region as of Dec. 4.

World Central Kitchen initially began operating in Southern California to assist Los Angeles’ firefighters and first responders last week but quickly expanded to Ventura County. The organization plans to provide food to families through Thursday and may expand if more residents are affected by the fires.

Healthy, hearty meals can be a rarity for families attempting to recover from disasters, which makes World Central Kitchen’s work essential, said local chef Tim Kilcoyne, owner of Scratch Food Truck and the recently opened Scratch Sandwich Counter at The Collection at RiverPark in Oxnard.

Kilcoyne, one of the volunteer chefs, was eager to give back to his community and noted the organization was delivering high-quality food to residents currently situated in shelters throughout the area.

“Today we’re mainly partnering with the Red Cross shelters and we did about 300 meals for their shelter at the (Ventura County) Fairgrounds,” Kilcoyne said. “I’m about to send 145 sandwiches to the Red Cross shelter at Oxnard College and another 145 are on their way to the UCSB Red Cross Shelter in Santa Barbara. We’re going to cook red snapper this evening for all the same people and envision we’ll be serving around 1,200 meals per day.”

World Central Kitchen aims to provide well over a thousand meals to residents on a daily basis. The work has kept the organization busy. The largely volunteer-based program has participants chopping and cooking ingredients and packaging food and delivering finished meals to a variety of shelters.

Ventura resident Ferne Ross was eager to volunteer and assist residents in her city. She noted that although the Thomas Fire had caused a great deal of pain in the community, she was optimistic about the future due to the outpouring of empathy to victims of the fire.

“I love Ventura and wanted to do something to help,” Ross, 72, said. “Everyone is heartbroken about what happened to the victims of the fire (but) I think the enthusiasm between the victims and the non-victims has been outrageously wonderful.”

Although providing meals to a large number of people is no small task, Nate Mook, who works in operations at World Central Kitchen, was encouraged by the strong support from Ventura County volunteers and businesses that have donated time and ingredients to help feed displaced families. Mook traveled from Washington D.C. to Ventura to run the program for Southern California residents and appreciated the positive response from the Ventura County community.

“We have a lot of organizations that are donating and helping out and everyone is coming together,” Mook said. “People are offering to help, donate and give their time without expecting anything in return. Everybody has been touched by this disaster and in these hard situations you see the best of humanity.”

Mook noted that although there were no specific plans yet, World Central Kitchen would look to expand its volunteer efforts to Santa Barbara if the ongoing fires create a growing need for food in the area.

Residents interested in volunteering with World Central Kitchen’s Thomas Fire program can visit the organization’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WorldCentralKitchenThomasFire/.