Internationally renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés, founder of GW’s Global Food Institute, delighted students when he and George Washington University President Ellen M. Granberg joined their class last week with DC Central Kitchen founder Robert Egger for a conversation on transforming global food dynamics.
The trio spoke to the class about how the next generation of leaders can alter the world’s food landscape to “feed more people better food for less money,” said Egger. Andrés credited him as a mentor and inspiration for his own World Central Kitchen, which provides meals in the wake of natural disasters around the world.
Andrés stressed that initiatives like the Global Food Institute, which aims to be the world leader in delivering food systems solutions, and the class “are about how to feed humanity in a better, smarter way,” he said. “We want to do good, but we want to do good smarter.”
Granberg echoed Andrés’ call for students to become “leaders in this space” and encouraged them to embrace even the most daunting new challenges. “Lean in and try that new thing, even if it feels unfamiliar,” she said. “You’ll be surprised, and it will keep your perspective fresh.”
Students reacted with excitement when Andrés and Granberg joined the World on a Plate class, an interdisciplinary Andrés-designed course that surveys the ways in which food and society interact. Associate Professor of Biology Tara Scully, a lecture instructor for the class, moderated their dialogue on reforming food policy and philanthropy to empower impoverished communities.
Egger, whose DC Central Kitchen trains unemployed adults to develop culinary skills while providing thousands of meals around the District, stressed that the traditional philanthropy model must shift its focus from “the redemption of the giver to the liberation of the receiver.”
He first conceived of a “new philanthropy business model” in the 1980s while serving meals to homeless people from a volunteer truck on 21st Street, not far from the GW campus. Then a local entrepreneur who aspired to manage nightclubs, Egger collected surplus food from restaurants, hotels and, in a move that put his nonprofit on the national radar, from George H. W. Bush’s inauguration events.
“We demonstrated that you could have this business model that gets people off the streets and out of prison, supports local farmers and reinvests profits” in the communities, Egger said, noting that it was possible to both provide nutritious meals and bolster local economies at the same time.
Andrés praised Egger, who opened the LA Central Kitchen in California in 2012, for expanding the concept of food philanthropy beyond merely serving food to involving whole communities in an interconnected partnership.
A global model
Inspired by Egger’s example, Andrés adopted the same strategy on the global stage when he founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 to bring prepared food to Haiti following its devastating earthquake.
He watched nations respond to world crises by shipping humanitarian aid in the form of food—often less-nutritious MREs, military-style Meals Ready to Eat. Too often, however, those well-meaning responses took business away from rural farmers in poor countries. Andrés said his projects, which have included food relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence, followed Egger’s lead by focusing on “an ecosystem” that interconnect whole communities.
Now, Andrés plans for the Global Food Institute to foster revolutionary solutions for eliminating world hunger by promoting cross-disciplinary research, harnessing the experiences of experts in global food policy and educating future food leaders.
He told the World on a Plate class that the institute is designed to head off looming crises like the consequences of both food waste and food scarcity. “One morning we may wake up and read…that we don’t have enough food on Planet Earth to feed 9 billion people,” he warned. “That is what [the institute] will hopefully be able to foresee so this will never happen in our lifetimes.”
When the discussion turned toward improving aid to underprivileged families—including expanding the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and access to free school lunches—Granberg challenged the myth that children, particularly those from impoverished backgrounds, won’t eat food with high nutritional content.
Citing her training as a medical sociologist, Granberg noted that she was part of a research team that assessed the Obama administration’s reforms to the National School Lunch Program, including adding more multigrain items as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.
“What we learned was, in fact, children did like when food was healthy, when it was locally sourced, when it tasted fresh,” she said. “We saw demonstrably that poor children would eat healthy food.”
World on a Plate
Andrés, who owns more than 30 restaurants around the world, including Beefsteak on the Foggy Bottom campus and the Washington, D.C., staple Jaleo, created the World on a Plate course in 2013.
Throughout the class, students explore how food both connects and divides us, examining a system that often favors industry over the poor but can also be key in sustaining community and cultural traditions. Scully said she hopes the students are inspired by the class “to be innovative around food issues in order to succeed in ending world hunger.”
Espie Ortega-Tapia, a second-year geography graduate student, said she was awed by meeting Andrés. The chef has been her role model since he delivered GW’s commencement speech in 2014 at the same ceremony where her father received his master’s degree.
“I remember thinking how empowering [Andrés] was,” she said. “It was the first time I understood how revolutionary food can be—not only as a communal agent that brings people together but as a healing agent too.”
Kiana Kamrava, a senior majoring in neuroscience and minoring in sustainability, said she was struck during the class by how confident Andrés, Granberg and Egger were in the potential for young people like her to change food policies on a global and individual scale.
“I liked how they wanted to help our generation switch the narrative around eating healthy to include this shared community in which we’re all working together,” said Kamrava, who volunteers with a nonprofit that promotes sustainable healthcare research and practice. “It gave me hope.”
Granberg urged the students to continue working toward creative solutions and praised both Andrés and Egger for transforming food policies and perspectives. As the class concluded, Scully asked her if she’d found a favorite restaurant since settling in D.C. She quickly chimed, “Jaleo, of course!”