We Feed People

"We're not only feeding people, we're creating a system," said José Andrés in the opening scene in Ron Howard's new documentary We Feed People.

He is creating a system, indeed. A working one, called World Central Kitchen. He has been cooking and feeding thousands of people, mostly suffering from the aftermath of hurricanes. At one point he Is in the middle of one too, as seen in his Instagram videos.

The foreign title of the film reads "Charity Rescue Mission," which is a bit deceptive, as the description only fits the last half of We Feed People. We start with abrupt and brief footage of him on a mission, but the real mission does not really take place until the 50-minute mark. We know a lot more about Andres first. Howard devoted half of the film to introduce us to him. His background, family, work, and the creation of his foundation are all told using talking head interviews and archive footage. Andres plays a significantly smaller role later on. We don't see him as often. We only see how his remarkable actions affect people.

After the "rescue mission" begins is when the film starts to repeat itself. It constantly praises Andres and remind us of the goal of WCK. It is all good-hearted, though, as we clearly see the impact WCK has on people. The impact it has on us, though, is lacking.