GULFPORT, Miss. – Celebrity chef Cat Cora founded Chefs for Humanity only months ago to cook up some comfort for those trapped in crisis. Now the group's first test is here in her home state.
Soon after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Cora said her group headed to Texas, thinking they could help feed evacuees. But she found they weren't needed there.
"We very quickly realized Mississippi was the place that really needed us," the Jackson native said as she cooked in the kitchen of Bayou View Elementary School in Gulfport.
With the help of volunteers and culinary students, Chefs for Humanity is now serving some 2,000 meals a day - about 800 for lunch and 1,200 for dinner - of jambalaya, fajitas, Asian stir fry and more. They constantly make phone calls to shelters to avoid duplicating efforts of groups like the Salvation Army.
"People are devastated and have nothing. They have nothing to look forward to, they have no home to go to and no job to go. A hot meal becomes the one thing to look forward to," she said.
Cora said she was impressed to see volunteers cooking for rescue workers and law enforcement when she arrived, but she was horrified to see unsanitary practices in the kitchen, like chicken stored on top of cheese, threatening an outbreak of salmonella.
People could have gotten sick, she said. But the volunteers didn't know any better.
Cora, whose show "Kitchen Accomplished" can be seen on the Food Network, knew when she formed Chefs for Humanity that there would be a need, "but 'til you're in a crisis - your first crisis - you don't realize how valuable your services are.
"We can run off and do events and fund-raisers because we have a voice in America," she said. "But we can also be back in the kitchen using the skills we've used for years."
Many other independent groups are on the Mississippi coast to help feed storm victims and the army of recovery workers. A number of church groups provide daily meals, often from buildings heavily damaged by Katrina.
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