Eleven Madison Park, once voted best restaurant in the world, fights food insecurity in Queens
Daniel Humm mainly does food distributions in the Queensbridge Houses through his nonprofit, Rethink Food. Council Member Julie Won says this type of service is especially helpful for the Queens community.
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In 2017, Flatiron’s Eleven Madison Park was voted the World’s Best Restaurant. But that didn’t do much to fill the cup of chef and owner, Daniel Humm.
“Early in my career it was so much about winning awards and feeding my ego and our team’s ego, but the truth is when our restaurant was named the best restaurant in the world, I wasn’t that happy and I felt there had to be more,” Humm told News 12 in Queensbridge.
Fast forward three years - it took a global pandemic for Humm to find his stride.
“Our industry was shut down and we turned Eleven Madison Park into a community kitchen and we worked with Rethink to distribute meals into these neighborhoods,” Humm said.
Humm mainly does food distributions in the Queensbridge Houses through his nonprofit, Rethink Food. Council Member Julie Won says this type of service is especially helpful for the Queens community.
“Not only are we focused on nutrition on hot meals that are fresh, produced today, but we’re also making sure it’s halal, vegetarian as well as meats-protein product,” Won said. “So we’re really catering to everybody who is looking for food.”
Darryl Kelly was one of those people.
“I work in Queens and I always see them giving the food out so I gave it a try, it’s a good thing they’re doing for this community,” Kelly told News 12.
“Food is just such a powerful thing, food touches everyone,” Humm said. “As we started this work, it just brought a lot of joy and happiness and in the morning when I get up, I know that the work really matters.”
Rethink Food serves meals seven days a week in New York City. To find out when they’ll be in your community, you can head to Rethinkfood.org.
