OAKLAND

MARCH 2020

This is the "activation" that started my journey with WCK. It was at the very beginning of COVID in March of 2020. I received a job offer from a producer driving a box truck up the coast of California with supplies from SoCal to Oakland. Initially, I said no because I didn't want to do it, but he convinced to take the job. I thought I was working on some production. I got about halfway up the coast when [what I thought was] the producer of the project called me and said we'll put you in a hotel in Oakland when you arrive tonight, you can drop off the truck tomorrow, and then we'll fly you back to LA tomorrow." I made a joke and said, "Yeah I definitely don't want to hang around Oakland longer than I need to, because that COVID cruise ship is docking tomorrow." He said, "Funny, you mention that... that's where you're bringing the truck." Turns out it was for a non-profit that provides food following disasters called World Central Kitchen and not a production. Anyways, I stuck around and helped them out by driving the truck loaded with food from their kitchen in San Francisco to the dock in Oakland every day - they were providing the food for the passengers that now needed to quarantine on the ship, which had run out of food.

It was an appropriate start to my journey at WCK. It was crazy to be at the center of news headlines, something that I would come to be familiar with at the organization.

Once they had tested, and unloaded all the passengers the project was over. I drove the truck back to SoCal loaded with leftover supplies. WCK had just signed a lease on a new warehouse, and when I pulled up it was the first time we - as an organization - opened it's doors. I began unloading the truck and from that moment I was the warehouse manager. I held that position for about a year, before I became a member of the "Relief" team which are the people that deploy out to the disasters around the world to provide food.