Kamala Harris visits crisis kitchen as it prepares 10,000 Thanksgiving meals and second gentleman Doug Emhoff reveals 'food insecurity' will be one of his issues
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stopped by the DC Central Kitchen on Wednesday to thank volunteers as they prepare Thanksgiving meals.
During the visit, her husband Doug Emhoff revealed food insecurity will be one of his top issues when he serves as second gentleman.
Harris and Emhoff paid a brief visit to the Washington D.C. nonprofit, which provides healthy meals to local families and trains low-income people with the culinary skills needed to work in restaurants.
Mike Curtin, the CEO of DC Central Kitchen, said the group expects to serve 10,000 meals on Thanksgiving Day and noted the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for food among the city's low-income population.
An additional 100 million people or more could be facing starvation this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, according to the United Nations.
Harris brought cookies from Dog Tag Bakery - a DC bakery that is known for hiring veterans - as thank you to the volunteers, who were already hard at work for the holiday preparations.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff thanked volunteers at DC Central Kitchen, where they were met by CEO Mike Curtin and Chef Jose Andres
Harris and Emhoff brought cookies to thank the volunteers for their work
Kamala Harris and Chef Jose Andres exchange an elbow bump
She said she and Emhoff will spend Thanksgiving together in DC cooking - just the two of them.
Harris is known for her love of cooking and often posted videos on her social media accounts during the campaign of her whipping up dishes in the kitchen. She posted a recipe for cornbread dressing online for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Emhoff noted food insecurity was a big issue that he saw when he traveled the country for the campaign.
He said this would be one of his issues he works on after his wife takes the oath of office.
'As I figure out the things I'll be passionate about this is definitely one of them,' he said.
It's traditional for a vice president's spouse to take up a signature cause. Karen Pence has focused on art therapy, Jill Biden worked with military families, and Tipper Gore focused on mental health issues.
When he campaigned in Texas in October, Emhoff stopped at a San Antonio food bank where he said food insecurity was really about 'access to opportunity.'
'The longer I've been on the trail, listening to issues around the country like food insecurity, which is an issue here – it's really access to opportunity,' Emhoff said at the time. 'Access to fairness. Access to living the American dream.'
Emhoff, a prominent lawyer in California and partner at the law firm DLA Piper, has said he will sever all ties with his firm before Inauguration Day to avoid possible conflicts of interest.
He also has said he will give up his career, for now, to serve as second gentleman.
Doug Emhoff revealed 'food insecurity' will be one of his issues as second gentleman
Jose Andres snaps a pick of Kamala Harris as she thanks volunteers
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris told reporters she has yet to speak to Vice President Pence
Harris was in Wilmington on Tuesday when President-elect Joe Biden introduced the administration's national security team before returning to Washington D.C. for the holiday. She and Emhoff own a condo in the city that they bought when she became a senator from California.
She said she still has not spoken to Vice President Mike Pence. President Donald Trump continues to contest the election but the Biden team is moving forward with the transition to power.
'Not yet,' she said when asked if she's spoken to her predecessor in office.
Joining the vice president elect at the event was Chef Jose Andres, who has worked with the DC Central Kitchen since 1993. He is the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.
He also campaigned for Harris in Miami during the past year.
'She loves cooking,' he said of her.
Harris was the first vice president elect to visit the DC nonprofit. The meet-and-greet was held outside due to the coronavirus pandemic. All the participants wore face masks.
President Barack Obama and his family visited DC Central Kitchen twice while he was in office. President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton also visited.
Harris said hunger is a serious issue in the country and one she will focus on.
'I'm here to talk with folks who are feeding the hungry. You may have heard me say one in six families in America is describing their children as being hungry. One in five are describing an inability to pay rent. These are real issues and the folks that we are talking about whoever they voted for deserve to have leadership that sees them through the lens of the life they're living, regardless of the price negotiation and we feel very strongly about that,' she said.
Curtin said he hopes to see the VPEOTUS over the next eight years and then eight years after that, hinting that she could see a promotion in her political future to the Oval Office.
'Give her time Mike,' Andres said.
'Let's get through Thanksgiving,' Harris agreed.
'I wanted to come by in the season of Thanksgiving to thank you,' she said to the volunteers, about a of dozen of whom came out to see her.
'The measure of strength is based on who you lift up. Not who you beat down,' she noted.
Since its founding in 1989, DC Central Kitchen has served 40 million meals in the nation's capital. Nearly 2,000 people have completed the organization's Culinary Job Training program.
During the pandemic, unable to safely host volunteers in person, DCCK's staff have prepared more than 2.4 million emergency meals since March. They've transformed nine schools into emergency meal sites and set up nine more mobile feeding stations in high-need neighborhoods. They built a large-scale grocery distribution program that's producing more than 5,000 bags of fresh produce each day and invested more than $1 million in hard-hit local farmers.