-
All right, let's get ready
for the worst TED Talk ever.
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(Laughter)
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I mean it. We prepared 30 minutes ago.
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I want to have it clear --
I love to be here with you all,
-
but I wanted to be here
not to tell my story,
-
but to tell the story
of the amazing people of Puerto Rico
-
that came together
to feed the people of Puerto Rico.
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My name is José Andrés,
and you know I love to feed the few,
-
but even more, I love to feed the many.
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Here, right after the hurricane,
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like we'd done many times before
after an earthquake in Haiti
-
or Sandy or others,
-
I had this sense of urgency to be there
-
and to try to feed one person,
-
and always, you have crazy friends
that want to join you
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in those impossible endeavors.
-
I'm always surrounded by amazing friends
that only help me to be better.
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Nate came next to me.
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This was a Monday,
and this is what we found.
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The destruction you saw on TV,
one more hurricane,
-
but this destruction was real.
-
More than 85 percent of the electricity
in the island was gone.
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Every single electric post was gone.
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All the cell towers were gone.
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You couldn't communicate with anybody.
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You couldn't find anybody the moment
you moved away from San Juan.
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Even in San Juan, we had issues
trying to use our cell phones.
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And what I found
was that the island was hungry,
-
and the people didn't have money,
because ATMs were not working,
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or their cards, which are electronic,
for food stamps,
-
they couldn't use it
in their supermarkets,
-
or there was no food or gas
or clean water to cook.
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The need and the urgency of now was real,
-
and I was just able
to get into a meeting at FEMA,
-
where many of the main
NGO partners were having a conversation
-
about how to feed the island
in the weeks to come,
-
but the urgency was right now,
in this minute, in this second,
-
and we almost had three million people
that needed to be fed.
-
So we began doing what we do best.
-
We went to see the sources of food,
-
and I was able to see that the private
industry actually was ready
-
and prepared and thriving,
-
but somebody at FEMA was not able
even to be aware of that.
-
And what we did use fine kitchens.
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José Enrique, one of my favorite
men in the whole world,
-
one of the great restaurants in San Juan,
-
where before landing, I began
calling all the chefs of Puerto Rico,
-
and everybody was like,
"Let's not plan, let's not meet,
-
let's start cooking."
-
(Laughter)
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And that's what we did.
-
We began feeding the people
of Puerto Rico, on a Monday.
-
On a Monday, we did a thousand meals,
sancocho, an amazing stew
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with corn and yucca and pork.
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By Sunday, we were doing 25,000.
-
By Sunday, we already
didn't only use the restaurant,
-
but we rented the parking lot
right across.
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We began bringing food trucks,
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and a rice and chicken pie
operation, and refrigerators,
-
and volunteers began coming.
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Why? Because everybody wants
to find a place to help,
-
a place to do something.
-
This is how we began our first delivery.
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The hospitals -- nobody was feeding
the nurses and the doctors,
-
and we began feeding our first project,
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Hospital Carolina.
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All of a sudden, every single
hospital was calling us.
-
"We need food so we can feed
our 24/7 employees
-
taking care of the sick
and the elderly and the people in need."
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And then the place was too small.
We were receiving orders.
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Every time we got one guest, one customer,
-
we never stopped serving them,
-
because we wanted to make sure
that we were able to be stabilizing
-
any place we were joining,
-
any city, any hospital, any elderly home.
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Every time we made contact with them,
we kept serving them food, day after day,
-
so we needed to grow.
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We moved into the big coliseum.
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25,000 meals became 50,000 meals,
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became, all of a sudden,
the biggest restaurant in the world.
-
We were making close to 70,000 meals a day
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from one location alone.
-
(Applause)
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Volunteers began showing up
by the hundreds.
-
At one point, we got
more than 7,000 volunteers
-
that were at least one hour
or more with us,
-
at any given moment,
more than 700 people at once.
-
You saw that we began creating a movement,
-
a movement that had a very simple idea
everybody could rally behind:
-
let's feed the hungry.
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And we began making food
that people could recognize,
-
not things that come from a faraway place
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in plastic bags that you open
and you cannot even smell.
-
(Laughter)
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We began making the foods
that people feel home.
-
People in these moments, they had
this urgency of feeling they are alive,
-
that somebody cares.
-
One meal at a time,
-
it didn't only become something
used to bring calories to their bodies,
-
calories that they needed,
-
but they needed something else.
-
They wanted to make sure
that you and you and you and you,
-
that you were caring,
-
that we were sending the message
that we are with you.
-
Give us time, we are trying to fix this.
-
That's what we found every time
we began joining the communities.
-
Fresh fruit began coming,
-
even when in FEMA, they were asking me,
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"José, how are you able to get the food?"
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Simple: by calling and paying and getting.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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We began feeding people in San Juan.
-
Before you knew, we were feeding the 78
municipalities all across the island.
-
We needed a plan. One kitchen alone
was not going to feed the island.
-
I went to FEMA. They kicked me out
with eight armored guards and AK-47s.
-
I told them, "I want 18 kitchens
around the island."
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Guess what? Three days ago,
we reached our 18th kitchen
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around Puerto Rico.
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(Applause)
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People began being fed.
-
Volunteers kept showing up.
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We never had any system
to deliver the food, people would tell me.
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Sure, we had the system.
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The entire island of Puerto Rico
was the perfect delivery system.
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Anybody with a truck wanted to help.
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Anybody going from A to B
was for us the way to be bringing hope
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and a plate and a whole meal to anybody.
-
We began finding amazing systems
to do these food trucks,
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10 amazing food trucks.
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We began learning not to use
the place that needed the food,
-
but the number,
-
the number of the apartment:
-
Lolo, a 92-year-old veteran
that was surrounded by water.
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We began giving not only hope to people,
-
but knowing their names,
-
checking day after day,
-
making sure that those elderly people
will never, ever again feel alone
-
in a moment of disrepair.
-
And we began going to the deeper areas,
-
places that all of a sudden,
the bridges were broken,
-
but we had to go, because it was easy
to stay in San Juan.
-
We had to go to those places
that actually, they really needed us.
-
And we kept going,
and people kept waiting for us,
-
because they knew
that we will always show up,
-
because we will never leave them alone.
-
(Applause)
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The food trucks became our angels,
-
and the food trucks kept sending hope,
-
but we saw we needed more:
-
Vieques and Culebra,
two islands far away from the island --
-
somebody had to be feeding them.
-
We didn't only bring food and make
a ?? kitchen operation in Vieques
-
and bring daily food to Culebra.
-
We brought the first
water purification system
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to the island of Vieques,
-
where we could be filtering
one gallon per minute.
-
All of a sudden, big problems
become very simple,
-
low-hanging food solutions,
-
only by doing, not planning
and meeting in a very big building.
-
(Laughter)
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And then we found creative ways.
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We needed helicopters. We asked. We got.
-
We needed planes. We asked,
we paid, and we got.
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We kept sending food to those places
that really were in need.
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And the simple ideas just become powerful.
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Volunteers will go
to the edges of the island.
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All of a sudden, it was a movement.
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The teams of World Central Kitchen
-
will be received with prayers,
with songs, with claps, with hearts,
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with smiles.
-
We were able to connect
in so many corners.
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When I tell you that even
the National Guard began calling us
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because our national poor guy's guards,
-
big heroes in a moment of chaos,
-
they couldn't get a simple
humble plate of hot food.
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And partnerships show up.
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Mercy Corps,
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HSI from Homeland Security,
-
partnerships that they
didn't happen calling the top.
-
They happened in the hotel room,
in the middle of the street,
-
in the middle of the mountains.
-
We saw that by working together,
we can even reach more people.
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Partnerships that happen by logic,
-
and the urgency of now
is put to the service of the people.
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When we have emergency
relief organizations,
-
we cannot be planning about
how to give aid a month from now.
-
We have to be ready to start giving help
-
the second after something happens.
-
And children were fed,
-
and all of a sudden, the island,
-
while still in a very special moment
-
where everything is fragile,
-
we saw that an NGO like ours --
-
we didn't want to break
the private sector --
-
that already, small restaurants
were being opened,
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that somehow, normalcy,
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whatever normalcy means
today in Puerto Rico, was happening.
-
We began trying to be sending the message:
-
we need to start moving
away from the places
-
that are already stabilized
-
and keep concentrating in the areas
that really need help.
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(Video): People of Puerto Rico,
two million meals!
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José Andrés OK,
let me translate this to you.
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(Laughter)
-
Almost 28 days later,
-
more than 10 food trucks,
-
more than 7,000 volunteers,
-
18 kitchens ...
-
we served more than two million meals.
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(Applause)
-
(Applause ends)
-
And you guys coming here to TED,
you should be proud,
-
because we know many of you,
you are part of the change.
-
But the change is only going to happen
if after we leave this amazing conference,
-
we put the amazing ideas
and inspiration that we get,
-
and we believe that nothing is impossible,
-
and we put our know-how
to the service of those in need.
-
I arrived to an island
trying to feed a few people,
-
and I saw a big problem,
-
and all of a sudden, the people
of Puerto Rico saw the same problem as me,
-
and only we did one thing:
-
we began cooking.
-
And so the people of Puerto Rico
-
and the chefs of Puerto Rico,
in a moment of disrepair,
-
began bringing hope,
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not by meeting,
-
not by planning,
-
but with only one simple idea:
-
let's start cooking
and let's start feeding
-
the people of Puerto Rico.
-
Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Dave Troy: Go back out.
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(Laughter)
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DT: The public loves you.
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(Applause)
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Nate Mook: A couple of quick questions,
-
because I think some folks
would be interested to hear.
-
So as you said, you came the first time,
-
got on the ground,
-
went to the government command center,
-
started to have some meetings with people,
-
and they weren't very receptive.
-
José Andrés: This is great.
This is how good my talk was.
-
(Laughter)
-
It's the first talk with a follow-up
in the history of TED.
-
I feel so good.
-
(Laughter)
-
NM: So tell us why,
what were some of the challenges,
-
and then when you noticed,
they started coming to you to ask you.
-
JA: We cannot be asking everything
from Red Cross or Salvation Army,
-
but the idea is, I donated before
to those organizations,
-
and they are the big organizations,
-
and maybe the problem is
that we're expecting too much from them.
-
It's not like they didn't do
what they were supposed to do.
-
It's that the perception
is that that's what they do.
-
But all of a sudden, you cannot get
into ?? and wash your hands,
-
and you say somebody else
is going to be picking that up.
-
We had a simple problem
that had a very simple solution.
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This was not a faraway country
-
or the Green Zone in Baghdad.
-
This was American soil,
-
a beautiful place called Puerto Rico,
-
with hundreds, thousands of restaurants
and people willing to help,
-
but all of a sudden, we had people hungry,
-
and we didn't have a plan
how to feed them in the short term.
-
So yes, FEMA, to a degree, was thinking
about how to feed the people.
-
Red Cross didn't have the right answers,
-
because Southern Baptist Church,
the biggest food organization in America,
-
my heroes, they were never
called to Puerto Rico.
-
When you see the Red Cross delivering
food in America after a hurricane,
-
it's Southern Baptist Church doing it.
-
We didn't have that in Puerto Rico.
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Salvation Army came and asked me
for 420 meals on a Wednesday rainy night
-
for a local elderly shop.
-
I love to help the Salvation Army,
-
but in my world, they are the ones
who are supposed to be helping us
-
to answer those calls of help.
-
Thursday morning
is when I wake up super worried
-
that actually we didn't have
the plan to feed the island,
-
and some people, we say
maybe you are making the problem
-
bigger than it was.
-
Well, we had hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of organizations
-
knocking on our door,
asking for a tray of food,
-
so if that's not proof
that the need was real ...
-
We cannot be feeding people
in America anymore with MREs
-
or something like you open and, you know,
-
I was giving to this little cat
a little bit of those same foods --
-
(Laughter)
-
and then I gave them
the chicken and rice we made,
-
and they went for the chicken and rice.
-
(Laughter)
-
(Applause)
-
They don't even eat that themselves.
-
We can feed humanity
for a day or two or five,
-
but those MREs cost, like, 12, 14, 15,
20 dollars to the American taxpayer.
-
It's OK for certain moments,
-
during battle,
-
but not to be feeding Americans
for weeks and weeks and weeks,
-
when actually, you can be hiring
the local private business community
-
to do the same job better,
creating local jobs,
-
helping the local economy to come back,
-
and in the process making sure
that everything was going to go back
-
as normal as quick as possible.
-
That's where we began cooking.
-
You were there with me,
-
and that's why we spent every single
dollar we had in our credit cards.
-
If AmEx is listening to this, please,
a discount would be appreciated.
-
(Laughter)
-
Or Visa.
-
NM: So what's the situation now?
-
You know, it's been a month.
-
You said there's been
some improvements in San Juan
-
and focus on the areas outside,
-
but obviously there are still
major challenges, and what's next?
-
JA: There are. So what's next
is we slowly began going down
-
after, more or less, FEMA let us know
-
that they thought they had
everything under control
-
and we were no longer needed,
-
but you only believe everything so much.
-
We moved from the big place you saw,
60,000 meals a day,
-
to another one, as big,
but more strategically located,
-
also cheaper,
-
where we are going to be making
20, 25,000 meals a day,
-
and then we are leaving
four, five, six kitchens
-
strategically located around the island,
-
very high up in the mountains,
in the poor areas.
-
We got a lot of data.
-
We know who is using SNAPs,
who is using food stamps,
-
the cards.
-
We know who has them
and we know who is using them,
-
so in the parts of the island
that nobody is using them,
-
those are the parts of the island where
we are going to be focusing our efforts.
-
So it's amazing how sometimes
simple data can give you a clue
-
of who are the people in need.
-
So we went to a town called Morovis.
-
Beautiful.
-
The best chicken restaurant
in the history of mankind.
-
You should all travel to Morovis.
-
DT: Sounds good.
-
JA: So I saw the chicken.
We were bringing sandwiches.
-
I stopped. I was with
these Homeland Security officers.
-
We ate the chicken.
-
I left to drop these sandwiches
in this other place called San Lorenzo.
-
San Lorenzo was critical,
because the bridge was broken
-
and so it was an island inside the island,
-
a little community surrounded by water.
-
Everybody told us,
"It's a disaster down there."
-
We dropped the sandwiches.
-
I went back to Morovis, and I thought,
-
you know, if it's a disaster,
sandwiches is not enough.
-
I brought 120 chickens,
-
with yucca and with rice
-
and we went back to that broken bridge,
-
we crossed the river,
-
water up to everywhere,
-
we arrived with the 120 chickens,
-
we dropped the food,
-
and the community
were very thankful, but they told us,
-
"We're OK, we don't need more food.
-
We have gas, we have money,
-
we have good food and our water is clean.
-
Take care of the other communities
around us that are in more need."
-
You see, communication is key.
-
In these scenarios, we can be
relaying out the fake news
-
or we can be having the real information
that we can make smart decisions
-
to really take care of the true issues.
-
That's what we are doing.
-
(Applause)
-
NM: It was an amazing operation,
-
and to witness it firsthand
and to play a small role --
-
JA: You made it happen.
-
NM: At its peak, I think
you were up to about 150,000 meals
-
per day, across the island,
-
which is pretty incredible.
-
And I think, at the same time,
really sort of setting a model
-
for how this can be done,
hopefully, moving forward.
-
I mean, I think that's one
of the big learnings out of this --
-
DT: This is possible.
You know, people can replicate this.
-
JA: But I'm going to stop coming
to watch TED Talks,
-
because you've got ideas
that anything can happen.
-
(Laughter)
-
And then my wife told me,
-
"Man, you told me you were going
to cook a thousand meals a day.
-
I cannot leave you alone for a day.
-
(Laughter)
-
But I hope that World Central Kitchen --
-
you know, one thing we did I didn't say:
-
I picked up the phone
and I began calling people,
-
people that I thought had expertise
that could help us.
-
So I picked up the phone and I called
a company called Bon Appétit, Fedele.
-
Bon Appétit's one of
the big catering companies.
-
They do food for Google and for arenas.
-
They're out of California.
-
They belong to a bigger group
called Compass.
-
And I told them, "You know what?
-
I need cooks, and I need cooks
that can do volume
-
and that can do good, quality volume."
-
In less than 24 hours,
I began getting people and chefs.
-
At one point, we got 16 of the best chefs
that America can offer.
-
You see, America
is an amazing heart country
-
that always is sending their best.
-
What we've been learning over the years
-
is that those chefs of America
are going to be playing a role
-
in how we are going to be feeding America
and maybe other parts of the world
-
in times of need.
-
What we need to start
-
is bringing the right expertise
where the expertise is needed.
-
Sometimes I have a feeling,
like with FEMA,
-
we are bringing the wrong expertise
in the areas that it's not even needed.
-
The people of FEMA are great people.
-
The men and women are smart,
-
they are prepared,
-
but they live under this amazing hierarchy
pyramidal organizational chart
-
that everybody falls
out of their own weight.
-
We need to be empowering
people to be successful.
-
What we did was
a flatter organizational chart
-
where everybody was owning the situation
-
and we all made quick decisions
to solve the problems on the spot.
-
(Applause)
-
NM: Absolutely.
-
(Applause)
-
Another round of applause for José Andrés.
-
(Applause) (Cheering)
Analia Padin
Please note the following typos in the English transcription. Could you please amend?
Thanks!
1:09 'More than 85 percent...' >> He says 95%
3:15 'rice and chicken pie operation' >> 'rice and chicken PAELLA operation'
5:20 'One meal at a time,' >> 'One meal at THE time,'
8:48 'with songs, with claps, with hearts,' >> 'with songs, with claps, with HUGS,'