World Central Kitchen (WCK), the NGO of the Asturian chef, although resident in the US, José Andrés, is already on the island of Tenerife to participate in the provisioning work for the numerous teams involved in extinguishing the fire declared on Tuesday night in the Arafo mountains and that has spread to several municipalities and in the care of people who have been evacuated from their homes. Pablo Pais, one of the WCK volunteers, informed DIARIO DE AVISOS yesterday that from the first moment the proportions that the fire was reaching were known, they decided to set out to bring food and water to both the firefighters, members of Civil Protection, National and Local Police and Civil Guard, among other troops, to help alleviate the needs of firefighting teams.
It must be remembered that this is not the first time that chef José Andres’ NGO has acted in the Islands. He already did it before the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma and later with the fires that have been declared on the Isla Bonita.
As this newspaper has learned, the NGO’s coordination tasks are carried out by Olivier Belleroche, head of the kitchen at World Central Kitchen in Spain, who since last Thursday night contacted the Zulay bakery, founded in the island of La Palma, and with stores in Fuencaliente, Los Llanos de Aridane, Santa Cruz de La Palma and La Laguna.
The request was very clear: sandwiches and water so that all the teams participating in the extinction could be well fed and the evacuees who have had to leave their homes in anticipation of the proximity of the flames or because of the smoke that makes the air every ever more irrespirable.
In record time, Zulay prepared several hundred sandwiches and as many bottles of water that were found yesterday morning on the counters of the La Laguna store and that aroused the expectation and curiosity of the Laguna people who were preparing to have their breakfast.
Pablo Pais has pointed out to this newspaper that yesterday, apart from distributing the sandwiches, they were visiting the affected areas such as the mountains of La Orotava and Candelaria, to make decisions about where to set up the kitchens and start preparing the food, objective that has brought them to the island.
Curiosity is great to know if José Andrés will visit the island, as he did in La Palma, but this is never known. Suddenly one day he shows up to see in situ the voracious fire that affects the Island.