Texas experienced devastating and deadly floods. As communities continue to rebuild, Chef José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen showed up in central Texas to help those affected. World Central Kitchen partnered with local restaurants to provide free food to those who lost so much during the July 4th floods.

World Central Kitchen is serving hot food to Texas flood victims

Following the July 4th flooding, World Central Kitchen stepped up to support its mission to help disaster victims. The organizations, started by Chef José Andrés, moved into the affected area and partnered with local businesses to offer relief. The way World Central Kitchen can reach thousands of victims is through partnerships with local restaurants that are eager to help their communities rebuild.

La Santa Barbacha, a Mexican restaurant in Austin, Texas, answered the call to help their community. La Santa Barbacha posted on Instagram that one of their locations closed so they could move resources to help World Central Kitchen. That help came in the way of sending employees to Hunt, Texas, to cook and prep meals.

Hunt, Texas, is a small town located along the Guadalupe River. The community was devastated as the Guadalupe River crested at 37.52 feet, breaking the previous record crest of 36.60 feet set in 1932, according to KHOU. Adding to the devastating impact of the flooding, Hunt, Texas, is situated where the two branches of the Guadalupe River meet. This geographic location meant that the water rushing down both branches collided and flooded the town.

A local meeting place becomes a beacon of hope for flood victims

The Hunt Store is an anchor business in the community, offering home-cooked meals, live music, and a place for the community to gather. In the face of the disaster, The Hunt Store became a centralized location for getting resources to the people. The store has served the unincorporated town for 80 years, and now it is a valuable lifeline to the community.

Despite the river inundating the store, it is still standing, and World Central Kitchen is serving up hot meals from the store. According to the World Central Kitchen website, the organization has served thousands of meals from The Hunt Store.

“We’re still here,” Haley Lehrmann, the owner of The Hunt Store, told NBC News. “All the locals who are still just exhausted at the end of the day are coming here for a break. It’s still the hub.”

Lehrmann added: “Every person that walks into the store has a memory. And if they don’t have one, they make one.”

Part of World Central Kitchen’s success is being able to move nimbly when disaster strikes. This is possible because the organization works so closely with local restaurants to access the needs. The organization also works with a network of chefs and volunteers to set up food service operations. The organization serves people around the world recovering from natural disasters, wars, and other emergency situations. World Central Kitchen understands the importance of food in everyday life and provide relief to guarantee that people in crisis have one less thing to worry about with fresh, hot meals.

If you want to help World Central Kitchen and its mission to provide food for disaster stricken areas, you can donate here.

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