Chef Lamar Moore and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group Partner with Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen Feeding Frontline Healthcare Workers

Chef Lamar Moore and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group have partnered with Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen to deliver free meals to hospitals to feed frontline healthcare workers that are treating patients with COVID-19 here in Chicago.  
 
Andrés – the chef and humanitarian – founded the non-profit World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org/) in 2010 that’s devoted to providing meals to those in need in the wake of natural disasters. World Central Kitchen has ramped up its relief effort during the coronavirus outbreak around the world. The partnership between World Central Kitchen, Moore, and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group is the first initiative in Chicago.
 
Moore and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group did the first World Central Kitchen food drop of 100 meals to healthcare workers at Lurie Children’s Hospital on April 9.
 
On Thursday, April 16 Moore and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group will deliver 300 meals of Moore’s chicken with pimiento cheese pasta to frontline healthcare workers at UIC Hospital in the Little Italy neighborhood. Moore and The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group will do at least one drop of 300 meals to hospitals and community centers once a week – and hope to ramp up to multiple times a week – thru at least July with World Central Kitchen.
 
“Food is passion, family, and friends,” Moore said. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help out hospital workers with World Central Kitchen, and collaborate with my friends over at The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group on this initiative.”
 
Moore – a Chicago native – won the Food Network’s TV cooking competition show “Vegas Chef Prizefight” last week. Moore is a former chef at The Swill Inn, Currency Exchange Cafe, and The Smoke Daddy.
 
World Central Kitchen contacted Moore to be the first chef in Chicago to start the initiative. Moore reached out to The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group to help as a partner because he was looking for kitchen space to produce the meals. Moore has previously collaborated with The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group – Moore’s “Southern Homestyle Pimiento Cheese & Spicy Sausage Pizza” is currently one of the Roots’ “Chef Series Specialty Pizzas”.
 
Moore is cooking all of the World Central Kitchen meals out of the Roots Handmade Pizza location in The Second City building (1610 N Wells St) in Old Town. The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group chefs are helping Moore cook and prep the food.

The April 9 food drop and the upcoming food drops on April 16 and April 23^rd are also partnerships with Frontline Foods (https://www.frontlinefoods.org) whose mission is to “save local restaurants who have been impacted by shelter-in-place orders, while supporting those doing battle on the frontlines.”
 
Below is a joint statement from The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group co-founders Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner:
 
“We are honored to partner with chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen and chef Lamar Moore to help feed frontline hospital workers here in Chicago. These hospital workers are real-life heroes. We hope this small gesture can put smiles on their faces and delicious food in their stomachs as they courageously do all they can to treat and comfort those affected by this pandemic.
 
Between the World Central Kitchen partnership out of our Roots Old Town location, feeding the National Guard at McCormick Place, The LEE Initiative efforts at West Town Bakery & Diner, and our food drive at The Fifty/50, we are humbled and grateful to provide over 1,200 meals a day to those in need.”