WASHINGTON – Chef Dimitri Moshovitis artfully assembled chickpea burgers before members of the World Food Program. His demonstration was part of a kickoff party for a Washington restaurant’s new partnership with the UN food agency.
Cava Mezze, in Southeast D.C., says it will donate 25 cents from the cost of every dish it serves between Sept. 1 and Sept. 16 to the World Food Program’s School Meals project. The program provides lunches to 24 million children in developing countries every year.
WFP spent roughly $346 million last year providing school meals in 63 countries around the world, including Honduras, Ghana, Niger and Zambia.
“I think people in D.C. and throughout the country are looking to make a difference and here is a clearly identifiable way to have an impact on children throughout the world,” said Rick Leach, president of World Food Program USA.
Leach applauded Moshovitis, affectionately known as “Chef D,” for bringing his idea to WFP. The chef said he hopes the partnership will inspire more restaurants to follow Cava Mezze’s lead.
“This program is important to Cava because we get to help within the community,” Moshovitis said at the event Wednesday night. “We get to bring awareness to other chefs as well. I think if we can collectively bring 100 of us together, we can make an even bigger difference than what we’re doing today.”
WFP will use the proceeds from Cava Mezze to buy food from local farmers in underdeveloped countries. In addition to feeding hungry kids, these “home grown school meals” would also boost income among small-scale farmers in countries like Ethiopia.
“These small-scale farmers often suffer from chronic hunger,” Leach said. “So each dollar gets leveraged to the extent that you’re helping lift farmers out of hunger and extreme poverty and providing food to children in school.”
Also attending the kickoff event were Vice President Joe Biden’s son and WFPUSA Board Chairman Hunter Biden and his daughters, Maisy and Finnegan, who participated in a cooking demonstration, cracking eggs and mixing a paste. Biden said his children help him to better appreciate the importance of the School Meals program.
“The one thing that every kid needs in terms of returning to school is the knowledge that they’re going to have the ability to learn and that means that they have to have a full belly that can feed their mind,” Biden said. “What WFP is doing is actually creating an entire generation of girls that are going to get an education.”