Chef José Andrés will distribute free meals from Nats Park

The Nationals are lending celebrity chef José Andrés a really big place to cook.

During the baseball hiatus prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, World Central Kitchen will distribute from Nationals Park thousands of free meals prepared in two of its large kitchens. The Spanish star chef and owner of gourmet restaurants in Washington and other cities across the United States founded the organization after an earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010.

Uber Eats drivers will ferry the food to D.C. communities with the first 1,000 meals scheduled to be delivered today. Organizers plan to provide as many as 5,000 free meals a day in coming weeks.

World Central Kitchen had been producing free meals from its headquarters in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The facilities at Nationals Park will better enable the nonprofit to meet increasing need.

Nationals Philanthropies and partnering organizations will deliver meals to public housing in the Navy Yard and Southwest Waterfront neighborhoods, as well as the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in Fort Dupont. Food will go out to other neighborhoods in need as the newly expanded venture ramps up.

Nationals Philanthropies has established a new $100,000 fund for grants to charities dedicated to feeding those in need during the public health crisis. As of April, 1 the Nats4Good Community Fund has made a grant of $25,000 to 4PFoods and a grant of $15,000 to Martha's Table.