After Hurricane Helene laid waste to huge portions of Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County last Friday, employees of Ashleigh Shanti’s Good Hot Fish left handwritten notes in the restaurant’s kitchen, which was left without power or water. “Paul was here,” read the first note. “No phones work, this is how we communicate now.” More Post-Its accumulated, disclosing the safety and status of the small team. In a matter of days, Shanti and her staff had teamed up with another restaurant, Neng Jr’s, and were at work feeding their hard-hit community with a cookout.
Chef José Andrés’s disaster relief organization, World Central Kitchen, was soon on the ground after the storm, helping other Asheville restaurants organize. Katie Button quickly signed over Cúrate’s still-functioning kitchen to the efforts, and her team has produced nearly 1,500 meals so far. Chai Pani, Botiwilla, Rhubarb, and Twisted Laurel are cooking for World Central Kitchen, too, with all meals distributed daily at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ.
“This community has been devastated, but it is this community that’s rebuilding it,” reads a post on Chai Pani’s Instagram page. (Chai Pani’s sister restaurants in Atlanta and Charlotte are allowing customers to add a donation directly to their checks.)
Meanwhile, Southern Smoke Foundation is mobilizing to address the economic side of the disaster—the nonprofit provides rapid financial relief to restaurant industry workers in need. And in addition to serving Florida, Mercy Chefs recently set up in Marshall and Hendersonville, North Carolina, and last night served some ten thousand meals of chicken, rice, and warm muffins, with plans to double their output.
Shanti put it best in her Instagram post: “I’ve never seen tragedy firsthand like I have in the past few days and there’s so much work to do to recover but our Appalachian mountain town is strong, resilient and resourceful and we are proving it! Right now, I’m hanging on to the deep sense of unity I feel amongst my community and doing what I know to do best—feeding the people.”
To support to food relief efforts:
Donate to World Central Kitchen here.
Donate to Mercy Chef’s Helene efforts here.
Donate to Southern Smoke Foundation here.
Donate to local efforts by emailing helenedonations@buncombecounty.org.
