Food And Hunger During a Pandemic: From Fine Dining To Life Saving

GPB is exploring the issues of food and hunger in Georgia during the coronavirus pandemic through a video series featuring stories of those who are being affected, and those who are trying to help.

Hugh Acheson is an award-winning chef and owner of two fine dining restaurants in Georgia: Atlanta’s Empire State South and Athens’ 5 and 10. When the pandemic shut them down, Acheson teamed up with The World Central Kitchen and put his kitchen and restaurant staff to work creating tens of thousands of meals for those in need. 

Hugh Acheson: On The Ides of March, oddly enough, we made the decision to shut down the restaurants and go quiet just for a little while. We did start doing some pretty ambitious to go and then we really got in touch with the Blank Family Foundation. Some of our friends run that and they got us funding to start doing some meals for hospitals through an amazing woman named Dr. Ellen. 

And then from that point in time, we really reached out to World Central Kitchen and Hussan, various and I've been friends for years. They started funding us to do in need community meals, which is what you see behind me.

But it's so important in the responses to get people again back to nourishment. You want to feed them a warm meal or a hot meal. That means something to them, it's culturally appropriate to them, the food that will give them strength to carry on and get through the day and help their fellow person. 

So, I think that's what we're trying to do. And that's where the world's central kitchen is endowed us with. 

This is one of the boxes and it's, yeah, it's got a little bit of a desert crumble. It's got a kale salad and it's got a sandwich. It's got a pickle. So, it's all kind of structured as a complete simple meal. 

Matthew Reed Before the pandemic, I just going to say, it was 15 programs providing food. And now I think we're down to maybe six. And so those are, you know, soup kitchens that people have to actually walk to. And so what we saw is a lot of people were actually very, very hungry. 

And so, yeah, it was it was a real godsend. They're incredibly, incredibly grateful. I mean, like I said, people are hungry. They're feeling, you know, yeah, insecure, anxious. 

And so, it's when they see that they have to worry about.

Lane Turner: It gives us purpose to at the same time because it's been a tough time for the hospitality industry and it's something we're passionate about ... making food and the fact that we get to do this during this time and do good while we're at it has just been ... we're extremely lucky to be in that position. 

Hugh Acheson: We've stabilized financially, we're up to date on rent and things like that, so we have a little wiggle room and all our people are on our payroll now. So, we'll see where we land. You know, if America never wants to dine out again, we're in trouble. But I think they do. 

And I think that, in the new normal, there's a sense of responsibility and individual responsibility that it's on all of us to make sure each other is safe.