Food is the great connector. That’s why José Andrés, a James Beard Award-winning chef, philanthropist, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, has dedicated his life to feeding people. This week, he spoke on a panel hosted by Fast Company at SXSW, where he talked about both his many entrepreneurial ventures and his humanitarian ones, like feeding people who are starving in Gaza amid the ongoing siege.

Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen—an emergency food organization that has aided people in war-torn countries and during Hurricane Katrina and the COVID pandemic. He also has a podcast, Longer Table; an upcoming show called Dinner Party Diaries, which launches March 19 on Amazon Prime; and a new cookbook.

But his work is, quite simply, just about getting people fed.

“We’ve been working on this for many weeks,” he said of his organization’s current mission in Gaza. “We don’t fight hunger. We go into the emergencies and we try to feed people quick and fast.”

While the world seems ever so divided on the siege, World Central Kitchen sees humans in need. Andrés says that while efforts started in Israel, they soon extended into Gaza. They partnered with Palestinian chefs, he said, “because also the people of Palestine were going hungry and they were also brutally attacked.” He explains that “food and water and respect to each other should be a universal [right]” without borders or limitations.

World Central Kitchen has 65 kitchens, with 10 more being built in Gaza. “Every day we open a new one,” he says, “350,000 meals a day. We are trying to reach half a million very soon.” But it’s still not enough to go around.

With social media images of starving Palestinian children flooding the internet every day for months, work like Andrés’ feels deeply impactful. But he says his organization isn’t just limited to his kitchens, but rather is dedicated to helping every single person, restaurant, or event that takes itself to feeding others.

At the end of the day, he just wants people to be treated humanely. “Remember that people don’t want our pity,” he says, regardless of the situation. “What people want is our respect and their dignity. And the way you do that is being there next to them in the darkest hour.”

Food is something that, when plentiful, is easily taken for granted. But when it’s in short supply, it becomes everything to people—the most basic human need we all share. According to Andrés, World Central Kitchen feeds that need because after all, food is about survival—the most “powerful tool to make the world a better place,” when shared.