Join the Sustainability Institute for the fifth film of the Intersections film program.

What’s the first thing you think about when responding to a natural disaster? Securing infrastructure? Rebuilding lost homes? For chef José Andrés, the answer is simple: food. But it’s also complicated, because food means so much more than nourishment; it also reconnects us to our sense of identity and place. So, in his view, food service in disaster response must not just be prepackaged and unappetizing meals–it must incorporate local cuisine and must nourish the community. And who better to spearhead that response than chefs, professionals trained to prepare lots of food quickly and used to improvising rapidly to adapt to changing supply chains?

In Ron Howard’s riveting We Feed People, we watch Andrés, a renowned celebrity tapas chef based in Washington, D.C., as he criss-crosses the globe to get on the ground immediately following natural disasters with his team from World Central Kitchen. Financed on a wing and a prayer, Andrés successfully gets tens of thousands of hot meals distributed in areas where government response teams still haven’t arrived, let alone restored power or cleared the roads. In the process, he enlists both global and local volunteers into a community of neighbors helping neighbors and paints a portrait of a tireless spirit adapting to a world of climate change in which his skills are ever more needed.

Following the screening, we will host a panel discussion with Mel Curtis, Director of the Anti-Hunger program at Centre Country YMCA, and others to further the conversation about food.