Original subtitles

Hi, everybody.

Hope you're still safer at home,

just as we are.

You know, whenever there's a crisis

or natural disaster, like so many of you,

my thoughts are with those who are

the most vulnerable among us,

those who need just the basics of shelter and food.

I still remember growing up with my mother in Milwaukee

when we were all on welfare, and sometimes,

we needed assistance for our family just to survive,

and during times like this,

so many more people are vulnerable.

This is why I wanted to talk to my guests today,

Chef José Andrés and Claire Babineaux-Fontenot.

These two have partnered with Leonardo DiCaprio

and Laurene Powell Jobs to launch a fund

called America's Food Fund.

Before the three of us talk via FaceTime,

I wanted to tell you a little bit about both of them.

Chef José Andrés is from Spain.

He's the owner of restaurants around the country

and the founder of a nonprofit called World Central Kitchen.

And Claire Babineaux-Fontenot

is a chief executive officer of Feeding America,

the largest hunger relief organization

in the United States.

While everyone's priority right now

should be to stay safer at home,

I know that there are many people

who are looking for ways to feel useful,

ways to help.

I believe that America's Food Fund,

what we're gonna be talking about today,

is a powerful way to make a difference

for our neighbors who are in need.

I'm sorry. Oh, my God.

-Is this real? -It's real.

I'm so sorry. I got late.

I was feeding all these...

All these amazing people under the bridge.

They're homeless, and they're very chit-chatting,

and I mean, I'm chatting with them

because it was my last delivery of the day.

And I'm like-- and I'm, "Oh, my God!

I have an interview with Oprah!"

Well, I love it that you're here.

[José] I'm almost there.

Okay, take your time.

Do not rush.

No, I'm sorry.

I had to disinfect my suit.

I had to-- 'cause I've been...

I've been in a lot of good places today,

and I do homes.

Yeah, yeah, I'm getting-- I'm getting healthy

because I don't want to bring viruses in home.

I'm disinfecting my shoes. I'm almost there.

I'm finishing.

[speaks indistinctly]

-All right. -Okay.

Hi, Chef. Hi, Claire.

-[Claire] Hi. -[José] Hello.

Hi, thank you for talking with me.

This is Claire and Chef José, have partnered

with Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurene--

Laurene Powell Jobs, they have,

who is the founder and president

of the Emerson Collective,

to create what you're now calling America's Food Fund,

which is gonna be hosted

by the social fundraising platform GoFundMe.

Explain for us how-- to all of us

how this new fund, America's Food Fund, works,

and where will it help?

First of all, that's my first question.

But before you even explain that, I know you--

you were late to this call

'cause you were just out feeding people.

I apologize.

No, no apologies,

but you just got in from feeding--

who were you feeding?

Well, I was feeding beautiful people

that sometimes they need in hard moments

somebody just to listen to them and take care of them.

So, today, in partnership with AARP

here in Washington, D.C., with my--

the NGO I founded, World Central Kitchen,

we are probably more than 21, 22 cities

in few states, and we are growing every day.

We are doing right now more than 100,000 meals a day

and we're getting ready to maybe reach

in the next days, weeks, over half a million a day.

-Wow. -We're feeding elderly

that all of a sudden they need somebody

to take care of them because the same people or NGOs

or kitchens who were doing it, because coronavirus,

or they are closing or whatever issues,

we are feeding homeless that right now,

they are not in the shelters.

Sometimes we are feeding firefighters that,

when they go back after a long day of work,

they go to the supermarket in the early days

and the supermarket is empty

and they need to be fed because they are working 24/7.

Or feeding the police in the park

that they are making sure that nobody is congregating

around the beautiful cherry trees in the city.

So keeping everybody safe by staying at home, so...

I understand that Leonardo DiCaprio

and Laurene Powell Jobs handpicked the two of you

for this job of creating America's Food Fund

because you each bring something different

to the table.

They say that you two,

Feeding America and World Kitchen,

are the perfect partners.

Tell us why you think so, Claire.

[Claire] So, in the middle of a disaster,

Feeding America has already partnered

with a great organization like the one that Chef has

to be on the front lines

in the middle of a disaster providing food.

What we tend to provide would be the food

that someone takes home

and prepares for him or herself.

What the chef and his organization

tends to provide would be the precooked food

that people can eat right then and there.

Both are absolutely essential, so I agree

that ours is a great partnership.

You know, I was sharing with you, Claire,

before we started taping, that as--

I've been looking to food banks and communities

where I grew up in towns where, you know,

I've experienced opportunities like, obviously, Chicago

and Nashville and Milwaukee where I grew up

and Mississippi where I grew up,

because I've been looking for ways to get food to people.

What I love about America's Food Fund

is that it becomes the central location

to go to for all of us who are looking to help people get fed.

Tell us how it works, Chef.

[Claire] Yes, let's talk about that.

So, it provides an opportunity to have a centralized place

for people who right now are really struggling

to figure out, "How can I help?"

Yeah, that's what we're all doing.

Exactly, so this fund, by donating to the fund,

the monies will be equally divided

between both of our organizations.

We're excited that we get to partner together in this way.

And then what Feeding America does,

we've set up our own fund, which this will go into.

It's called our COVID-19 Fund.

And what it--every penny that goes into that fund

is distributed inside local communities.

Feeding America, as a service to our members,

is not taking one dime.

No administrative costs--

of course it costs money to administer it--

we're taking nothing.

At a moment like this, we need to make sure

as many resources get directly into local communities

as we can get,

and that's precisely what we're doing.

When you go to the website that we have,

FeedingAmerica.org, for instance,

there's actually a food bank locator,

and it gives you a chance to isolate,

which community are you very specifically interested

in helping, and you can direct funds

right into that community,

for whatever reason you might love that community--

you might have gone to college there--

we can find a food bank to help you there.

Through this fund, we will make certain

that all of the dollars that come to us

through this fund are funneled down to the local communities.

That's fantastic. So you all are doing the work.

You say that there are

three specific groups in our community

who are going to face the greatest threat

of food shortage from this pandemic.

Who are they?

We're talking, obviously, homeless.

Many of them are leaving shelters

because they know about coronavirus.

Some of the shelters are not able

to provide the same services.

And we see it-- we see this,

like, Washington or LA and others.

Obviously, it's the elderly.

We can divide the elderly almost into groups.

The one I was today, which is managed

by Washington, D.C., by the city,

but AARP is a very active partner,

and there you may have entire building

with 200 elderly people in almost 200 apartments.

But then you have elderly

that they are living alone in a home.

-Yeah. -In a flat apartment,

and nobody's taking care of them because they're afraid,

because they are reading the news.

They don't have anybody going home anymore.

They're afraid to go out for groceries, afraid to eat--

[José] And all of a sudden, we get the phone call

from a family member, somebody that knows.

Some people reach us on Twitter.

Some people on Facebook.

So we have people that are scouting all of that,

and we've been able to be responding

to an elderly couple

in the middle of nowhere, Rhode Island,

or in the middle of Marin County.

This is something like us, we're trying to put into place.

How do we do that so quickly?

Much of the food was being delivered

by people on bikes and motorbikes.

Right now, those men and women that used to bring you and me

our pizza on a Saturday night at home

in a fun day watching a movie,

all of a sudden those men and women

delivering the food, they're heroes.

They're putting their lives at risk

so you don't have to leave your home

and follow the guidelines

of your governors and your mayors

and they're keeping your family fed.

-Yeah. -[José] All of a sudden,

these people that we don't look...

-You're absolutely right. -Almost they are...

they are ghost of the system,

those are the men and women

right now, they're our heroes,

because as our nurses and doctors

are fighting the war in the hospitals,

all of us, we are behind the lines

providing support in many ways.

People like Feeding America

and people like World Central Kitchen

and many other NGOs and private sector,

we are here trying to provide food

and making sure that food will not be the issue

that may cause civil unrest.

Okay, so if I have a person who's just watching this

and I want to participate in America's Food Fund,

what do I do?

[Claire] So, there is a website

that I hope we have right there,

that you can quote for people.

I think the best thing that people can do right now

is to donate to that fund.

Hopefully, having had an opportunity

to hear from me directly, to hear from the chef directly,

and then the remarkable brand that you have,

I hope that all works towards people understanding

that these are organizations that in fact

are on the front lines,

who can make an impact,

who are well-positioned to be good resources for them

as they're trying to be great resources for the tables.

So that's the number one thing that we're asking now

is to go to that fund and donate to the fund.

Secondarily, I would say, please--

So it's a GoFundMe. It's a GoFundMe.

America's Food Fund. GoFundMe, yes.

[Claire] That's exactly right.

The other thing is, and I understand

and I fully believe, I have great confidence,

that we will get past this crisis.

The moment will come when we're no longer

as concerned about our health and safety.

The moment will come when the vast majority

of Americans are employed again.

But even after that's happened,

there will be tens of millions of people...

-Yep. -Who need help.

My fervent desire is that people

not forget about them when this crisis is averted,

because we know that those communities

that are already vulnerable will have the most difficulty

bouncing back from this crisis.

I think that's big.

Well, you know, I'm so excited about what you all are doing.

I want to be the first person to go to the website--

it's GoFundMe/AmericasFoodFund--

and I'm gonna donate a million dollars, because...

-Oh, thank you. -Oh, my God.

I'm gonna donate a million dollars,

and I hope you all will join me.

I know everybody can't donate a million dollars,

but I feel like this is the central place to go

if you really want to do something.

Everybody who's sitting at home and thinking,

"I don't know what to do, I don't know how to--

and I don't know where to give my money to,"

I know I can trust my money in your hands,

Feeding America and World Central Kitchen.

So thank you so much.

-Wow. -Thank you, Oprah.

Thank you so much, Oprah.

I cannot believe I'm here

being interviewed by you, Oprah.

Of course you can.

No, I can't, I mean,

oh, my God, this feels like Forrest Gump 3.0.

We are, both of us, we are so honored

to be here in your presence

giving this fund this kind of visibility,

and let me tell you,

we are gonna be here together

to make sure that we feed America in this moment,

and we are gonna come up out of this crisis

stronger than ever,

making sure that we don't leave anybody behind.

Thank you. Thank you, Oprah.

And most importantly,

I know you know this so well, Chef,

that giving a plate of food is not just a plate of food.

It's so much more, Oprah.

I do believe that some of the bigger problems,

they have very simple solutions.

A humble plate of food only shows

things like you care, somebody care.

We show up every day.

We tell people, "We're not gonna forget you.

We're gonna be here with you until things are better."

-Better. -[José] And then you learn

about the communities.

You listen what they really need--

not what you think they need-- what they really need,

and this way, you are there for them,

they're there for you, and before you know it,

things are better in that community.

You're putting them in a good place to start.

[Claire] I do want to just share one quick data point.

Before this crisis,

there were roughly 40 million people who were food insecure

according to the USDA.

And we threw away 72 billion pounds

of perfectly edible food, not counting households.

How do we acknowledge it coming out of the crisis

to ensure that we're matching would-be waste

and sending it to bellies instead of landfills?

So that's a lot of the work

that we're gonna be doing going forward too,

and we're having to stop and say,

we understand there's a crisis today,

but we've gotta have a considerable amount

of our energy put on,

what are we gonna be doing tomorrow as well

and how are we gonna be better

on the other side of this rather than--

Claire, I think-- I think that's gonna happen.

I don't think any of us are gonna come out of this

behaving the way we did before we went in,

and I think there's a new normal

that's gonna be established,

and it's a chance to rethink,

relearn, and reset the way we do everything.

[José] Shorter walls and longer tables.

Agree. Absolutely.

Oh, thank you-- thank you so much for your--

Thank you all so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Chef. I hope you--

-Okay. -Stay safe, you.

-Bye. -Stay safe, Chef.

All right, blessings.

-Blessings to you too. -Blessings.