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June 18, 2020
COVID-19 ResponsePublic Health

Follow the Data Podcast: Food First Responders

As the coronavirus continues to impact communities around the globe, health care workers are risking their lives every day to protect others.

To express our appreciation for them, Bloomberg Philanthropies teamed up with Chef José Andrés and his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, to provide almost 1.1 million meals to health care workers working on the frontlines at 16 NYC Health + Hospitals facilities.

World Central Kitchen contracts with local vendors and restaurants to provide these healthy and delicious meals. They partnered with 33 restaurants across all five boroughs, allowing many of them to bring back employees and keep parts of the industry afloat during the pandemic.

The international not-for-profit uses the power of food to heal and strengthen communities during times of crisis.

In a conversation recorded on June 4th, World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook joined Bloomberg Philanthropies Senior Advisor Brynne Craig to share an update on our partnership, to tell us more about how re-opening will shift World Central Kitchen’s work, and to let us know how you can help people across the country that are in need of a meal or groceries.

You can listen to the podcast and past episodes in the following ways:

For more from our coronavirus series:

  • Mayor Jan Vapaavuori of Helsinki, Finland, joined Kelly Larson of our public health program for “How Helsinki, Finland is Responding to COVID-19.”
  • On “Lights, Camera…Action?” Michelle King, the co-creator of “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” Brooke Kennedy, executive producer of “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” actress Christine Baranski, actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Joseph Benincasa, President and CEO of The Actors Fund, sat down with Bloomberg Associates’ Katherine Oliver to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted performing arts & entertainment.
  • The Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, spoke with public health program lead Dr. Kelly Henning for “How Freetown, Sierra Leone is Responding to COVID-19.”
  • Steven Kobre, a Partner at Kobre + Kim, and Jerry DeLoach, the Head of the Cost Recovery Team for the City of Atlanta, joined Bloomberg Associates Principal Rose Gill for “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 2.”
  • Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Jessica Leighton from our public health program discussed “A Promising Treatment for COVID-19.”
  • Amanda McClelland, the Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics and Resolve to Save Lives at Vital Strategies, joined Dr. Jennifer Ellis of our public health program to discuss “Slowing the Spread of COVID-19 in Africa.”
  • Natasha Rogers, the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Newark, and Brad Gair, a Principal with Witt O’Brien’s, joined Adam Freed, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates, for “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 1.”
  • In “The Intersection of COVID-19 and Transportation,” Janette Sadik-Khan, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates and Chair of NACTO, Corinne Kisner, Executive Director of NACTO, and Mark de la Vergne, the Chief of Mobility Innovation for the City of Detroit, spoke about how cities can provide safer, healthier transportation options going forward.
  • Josh Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health joined Beth Blauer of the Centers for Civic Impact at Johns Hopkins on “Behind the Scenes of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Map.” This episode was borrowed from “Public Health on Call,” a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  • Josh Sharfstein also appeared on “Responding to a Pandemic Crisis” with Dr. Jessica Leighton of our public health program.
  • Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, spoke with Megan Sheekey, who leads Strategic Partnerships at Bloomberg Associates, about “How to Help Nonprofits Hit Hard by COVID-19.”
  • Tom Frieden, the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and the former director of the CDC, sat down with Dr. Kelly Henning, the public health program lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the former Director of Epidemiology for the City of New York, for the first episode of our coronavirus series, “’World War C’ – Us Against the Microbe.”
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