Did World Central Kitchen work with ICE in Puerto Rico?
Issue 155: One restaurant in the Bronx alleges they did; Andrés's team says... it's complicated. Here's what's going on.
Hello! This is Nosh Box, a lunchtime-ish food newsletter. (If you’re new, welcome! We send around links every weekday to something noteworthy in the food world.)
Read yesterday’s dispatch: Chuck E. Cheese & Applebee's are catfishing local food lovers
Today — a restaurant in New York City stopped working with José Andrés’ nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, over allegations that WCK collaborated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. government agency that deports undocumented immigrants. The idea that WCK and ICE worked together in any capacity could deeply erode trust for WKC, particularly among immigrants and communities of color. What happened?
(This is a longer newsletter than normal because this is an important topic that I’m not seeing much discussion about in other news outlets just yet!)
First, some context, and then I’ll give you details and more links to read about what’s going on today.
Some context on World Central Kitchen: Started by chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen has worked for 10 years to provide food relief and infrastructure after natural disasters. Notably, after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, Andrés and his team served ~2 million meals in the first month and eventually received grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to keep working. Andrés, a Spanish immigrant, has also gotten into social media and legal battles with Donald Trump after Trump’s racist remarks about Mexicans and immigrants.
Some context on ICE, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: They’re the law-enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security, which was created after 9/11. ICE does not patrol the borders (that’s handled by Customs and Border Protection, another DHS agency). What ICE does is deport undocumented immigrants. In 2018, their budget included $4.1 billion for “detention and removal operations.” And ICE is very, VERY opaque. For some communities, ICE represents the inhumanity of the current U.S. immigration system and especially the increasing hostility to all immigrants, regardless of documentation status. After the Trump admin announced the family separation policy in 2018, the hashtag #AbolishICE took off on social media. The Atlantic has a good explainer on this.
So. Here’s where our story starts: In response to Covid-19, Andrés and WCK have begun working with dozens of chefs and restaurants around the country, serving 250,000+ meals a day.
One of these restaurants, La Morada Oaxacan Restaurant, in the Bronx, announced that they have stopped working with WCK. They say that, during WCK’s efforts in Puerto Rico in 2017, the organization had worked with ICE to deliver meals — fundamentally incompatible with the restaurant’s values. Plus, they say there were other problems.
Here’s how La Morada begins the statement:
Because of our political difference, we have ended our collaboration with World Central Kitchen (WCK). We mention political differences because in our relationship with WCK, these were challenged to the point where we knew we needed to end our partnership. We were already struggling in our work with WCK due to distribution, pay, accessibility issues and ties with gentrifying forces when we found that they had worked with ICE during their aid work in Puerto Rico in 2017, and openly praised DHS police as allies in times of crisis then.
Their full statement is long, detailed, and emotional. You can read it on their website here.
Our food system in the U.S. is, by and large, powered by immigrants, particularly undocumented workers — and they’re now being deemed “essential,” making them particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. (Read that linked article!) La Morada says they’re a “small, undocumented family owned business and community space.” For the folks at La Morada, understandably, it feels like a massive betrayal if WCK coordinated in any way with a government agency whose mission is the detainment and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
This morning, WCK responded, to LatinoRebels.com. I’ll quote their statement:
The assertions made in this statement are either a distortion of the truth, or simply not true at all.
The central issue presented in the statement relates to a photograph showing Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officials visiting World Central Kitchen’s food relief operation in late September, 2017 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after the island had been hit by hurricane Maria. As part of its relief efforts in Puerto Rico, WCK worked with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. During times of disaster, FEMA works with other government agencies, including HSI, which was engaged in Puerto Rico to perform “wellness checks” of families in hard-hit areas of the island, many of which were cut off without electricity and communications. HSI simply took WCK sandwiches to distribute to communities in these areas, as did many local and state groups during the time WCK served 3.7 million meals in Puerto Rico.
It is absolutely untrue that WCK works with ICE or supports its agenda. The only connection to ICE is that HSI falls under the jurisdiction of ICE within the Department of Homeland Security. But in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, HSI was under the direction of FEMA.
WCK’s statement also goes line by line to rebut the assertions La Morada made. You can read WCK’s statement here.
Essentially, WCK is saying: (1) Yes, Homeland Security Investigations (a part of ICE) delivered our meals, but (2) that’s all they did, and (3) they were working for FEMA at the time. And (4) we don’t support ICE’s agenda.
Still, it’s important to note that HSI is, and always has been, a division of ICE. Even in 2017, during the Puerto Rico recovery, an article in the New York Times noted the following detail:
Agents of Homeland Security Investigations, a division of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were serving as emergency workers, and staying in the same hotel as Mr. Andrés’s crew. The chef persuaded them to load food into their vehicles every morning as they headed out to patrol.
Here’s José Andrés praising the Department of Homeland Security on Twitter in 2017:
And I can see how the presence of ICE agents in any capacity — even working under FEMA’s direction — could feel threatening to many communities. It also seems that WCK is saying, to some extent, that the end justifies the means: They fed millions, whatever it took.
This is a deeply entangled story. Is it problematic or even existentially threatening for agents who work for a division of ICE to deliver food relief?
I think it can simultaneously be true that World Central Kitchen does important, lifesaving work, and takes steps that people find disagreeable or unconscionable. I suppose it’s up to WCK’s partners to decide if they want to continue that relationship, and La Morada has said — no. I’ll be curious what other partner restaurants say, and if WCK continues to respond. And I’ll keep you posted. Feel free to share thoughts on social media with this newsletter’s link or email me at jaredhkaufman@gmail.com.
One other thing I just had to share —
Caribou Coffee, a Minnesota-based chain that’s built a brand identity around a sort of Northwoods outdoors-ism (is that an ism?) is realizing that, um, maybe that doesn’t play too well in the current COVID era.
BuzzFeed News’ Julia Reinstein writes:
It was a slogan they never could've guessed would become controversial.
And now coffee shop chain Caribou Coffee is stuck with who knows how many coffee sleeves bearing perhaps the worst possible motivational quote for the coronavirus quarantine: "FIGHT THE URGE TO REMAIN INDOORS."
A spokesperson for the chain confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it is asking its workers to "go through and sort out materials that were produced before the pandemic and aren't exactly on point with the heroic efforts that are being made to contain the Coronavirus."
An important public health message indeed. See you tomorrow!
