A Chef Challenge With High Stakes: Hunger Relief

Delicious donations Fight2Feed chefs turn into meals for people in need. Courtesy of Fight2Feed.

For the last seven years, Jiwon McCartney has run Culinary Fight Club (CFC), a live food competition event where chefs are challenged to make creative meals—fast—to win prizes and bragging rights.

In mid-March, the stakes got real.

The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic created a shocking need for hunger relief in Chicago, McCartney's home base, and around the country.

In 2014, McCartney had started the nonprofit Fight2Feed, so in March she turned to her local CFC chefs and allies to help her switch gears.

McCartney and the chefs, all out of work when Chicago restaurants closed in the fight against COVID-19, became a Fight2Feed squad. Their focus now became making creative meals—fast—to help people suddenly without access to food.

Jiwon McCartney. Courtesy of Fight2Feed.

McCartney says: “The need has been so intense since the pandemic hit. These meals are needed every day by so many. It feels like being on the Titanic. Every 30 seconds there’s a new hole opening up. We’re one of the operations plugging the holes.”

Following government rules, Mark Wuenschel, the chef/owner of Hutch Kitchen + Bar in Andersonville, closed his restaurant for business, but then offered the kitchen to the Fight2Feed volunteer team.

Fight to Feed set up there and started taking food donations. McCartney says: “Every food distributor had foods with a short shelf life that needed to be moved. We took whatever we could.”

Several of Chicago's churches and food distribution centers had shut down to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, so McCartney and her team brought food to outlets run by the Chicago Help Initiative (CHI), a social services nonprofit. CHI supported the costs for equipment and supplies or to cover the food not included in donations. While they continue this collaboration, Fight2Feed also delivers to any nonprofit partner who puts out a call for prepared meals.

McCartney says: “We collect all the donated and rescued food and make the meals at the restaurant. We have a food truck that takes it to the locations. We go to the churches, the shelters, to the homeless.  We serve meals from a food truck to our friends in the streets.”

 To date, they have served more than 27,000 meals, rescued more than 200,000 pounds of food, and shared free pantry supplies with more than 700 families.

What’s their motivating mindset? McCartney says: “We are very much into dining with dignity. Just because you are homeless doesn’t mean you don’t know how to eat. We make sure that the foods that they eat are enjoyable, as good as we eat ourselves. If people are picking up food, we make sure they can take home a good, hot meal for families.”

The Fight2Feed nonprofit also has outlets in Atlanta and Kansas City. Those operations got underway more slowly during the pandemic but are doing what they can with local teams as well. McCartney is also working to open a field team near Boston, and in Pensacola, Florida.

 The Crew Gets It Done

McCartney is often surprised by what they accomplish.

She says: “We have a team of eight people to make 2,200 meals a week, working seven days a week. We start at 7 am and we’re not out until 5, 6, 7, or 8 pm. I run the operation but I also help wherever I can. I know what it’s like to do the dishes when the pots are as big as I am.”

She says: “The work we do is 100% volunteer. The chefs [from restaurants that closed] just want to work in the kitchen. Dealing with the change caused by the pandemic was so hard for them. They were used to every ounce of their time and energy going into cooking, and then with the pandemic, everything stopped suddenly.”

Each chef takes shifts when he or she can. It’s an unusual operation but it works.

Chicago Fight2Feed chefs prep for meal delivery.

McCartney says: “The chefs come in, see the menu, and jump right in. We run a full-fledged restaurant but with executive chefs from different restaurants. We also get sous chefs, culinary students, aspiring chefs. I’m giving them the apprenticeship of their life. They learn right next to the executive chef.”

The team often doesn't know until the last minute what foods will be donated. They stay focused by channeling their former competition spirit.

 McCartney says: “We try to look at it like a Culinary Fight Club-style challenge. We get a truckload of expensive ingredients. We come from different backgrounds and we put together amazing meals.”

 There's no getting around the hard work, though. McCartney says: "We’re all physically exhausted. One chef said recently at the end of the day: ‘I feel like I was in an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fight.”

It’s also taxing in unexpected ways. She says: “We talk about mental health on a daily basis.”

Keeping the (Personal) Fires Burning

It can be a physical, psychological, and emotional strain, but everyone understands the "why" of their work.

Feeling the lack of resources, yet knowing there's a massive need out there, McCartney and her Fight2Feed team press on.

 She says: “Every city has a system to take care of the homeless and the people who need hunger relief, but more work is needed. We have to remind ourselves daily that the system was broken long before we got here, but we can make a difference. It gives us hope. I try to get most of our chefs and leaders to hand someone a meal so they see someone’s gratitude for the hard work they’re doing.

“If we see that we make a difference to one person, then we can imagine the difference we can make to help hundreds, even thousands. But it’s a daily grind. You can’t do it once a year, one day. No one eats just one meal a day. No, these people have to eat several times a day. Good meals, not junk food. Fruits and vegetables. A hot meal.”

Keeping the (Stove) Fires Burning

How is Fight2Feed financed? The nonprofit accepts donations but does not currently have a fundraising operation.

“It’s hard because people don’t know us," she says. "We haven’t been able to spread the word. We don’t have a 'brick and mortar' location. The public—corporations and individuals—doesn’t see us. One of the volunteers was so moved by our meal service at one of the missions and gave the mission $100,000. We didn’t get any of that. People don’t see that Fight2Feed is producing the food. They don’t donate to Fight 2 Feed.

“We can’t apply for grants, PPP [federal Paycheck Protection Program assistance for small businesses] because we don’t have a brick and mortar space, we don’t have employees. The PPP isn’t for organizations like ours. If a restaurant shuts down but makes 1,000 meals they get funding. We don’t.”

As Chicago slowly reopens, the Fight2Feed team has had to move from two of Wuenschel's Hutch restaurants that he had donated for its meal preparation. The will have to continue to switch locations to continue their work.

 They hope to begin fundraising, not only for food and equipment but also for Fight2Feed future-building.

 McCartney says: “We’re looking for a more permanent kitchen, preferably in an established restaurant. Restaurant kitchens have the tools already there. We could prep the food. Prepack and store food. If there are restaurants closing, we could take over the lease, if someone is willing to donate a lease. If we have a set location, we could then also try to apply for grants.

 “For now, though, most of my time is spent getting more meals out the door. We fight to feed every day. We fight to get the donated foods, make the meals, and get it to the people who need it. Then we start over again.”

 You can donate to Fight2Feed here.