Honors: Humanitarian chef José Andrés will receive Steinbeck Award from SJSU.

His World Central Kitchen has served 25 million meals this year alone

“José Andrés is like a character out of a lost Steinbeck novel — a chef whose cuisine is the envy of kings, but who chooses instead to feed the world’s neediest people, wherever they may be.”

— SJSU professor Nick Taylor

When hurricanes make landfall in Central America, José Andrés is there. When earthquakes rock Puerto Rico, José Andrés is there. When wildfires scorch Northern California, José Andrés is there.

And when the next disaster hits, he and his World Central Kitchen team will be there. It’s been that way not just during this pandemic year — when the group has served 25 million meals — but for the past decade since he founded the nonprofit.

For his work, the renowned chef-restaurateur who has made a mission of feeding the world’s hungry and displaced will receive the 2020 John Steinbeck Award from San Jose State University in a virtual event Monday evening.

The honor goes annually to artists and activists who, through their work, embody the spirit of the author’s social engagement. Previous honorees have included activist Dolores Huerta, author Khaled Hosseini, civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, documentarian Ken Burns and musicians Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen.

“José Andrés is like a character out of a lost Steinbeck novel — a chef whose cuisine is the envy of kings, but who chooses instead to feed the world’s neediest people, wherever they may be,” SJSU professor Nick

Taylor, director of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies on campus, said in announcing this year’s honoree.

Andrés himself has invoked Tom Joad’s speech from “The Grapes of Wrath” on his WCK website when seeking donations to help fund the team’s work: “Join me in fulfilling the inspiring words of John Steinbeck: Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people may eat, we will be there. We must be there.”

The award presentation will be made during an event called “José Andrés and Sean Penn: A Conversation on Giving Back” that is being hosted by the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco and sponsored by the Center for Steinbeck Studies.

The two have collaborated during the COVID-19 crisis. Actor Penn is the cofounder of a charitable organization called CORE, the Community Organized Relief Effort, and was the 2004 winner of the Steinbeck Award.

“Thank you to the people of San Jose State for this amazing award — the words and wisdom of Steinbeck are very close to my heart and the mission of World Central Kitchen, so this is meaningful to the entire team and me,” Andrés said in a statement.

Both the pandemic and wildfires have brought Andrés and his WCK team to the Bay Area this year to serve meals. In March, when the Grand Princess, the cruise ship stricken by the coronavirus, arrived at the Port of Oakland, they were waiting dockside with meals for the passengers. In late summer, they mobilized to feed victims of the Northern California blazes and firefighters, as they had during previous fire seasons.

Throughout the year, the WCK has partnered with more than 125 NorCal restaurants to serve 80,000 meals every week to the unemployed and others dealing with food insecurity during the pandemic.

The Spanish American Andrés is a James Beard Award-winning chef whose group still owns a number of restaurants.

During the formative years of his World Central Kitchen, Andrés also served as dean of the Spanish studies program for the International Culinary Center, a prestigious training academy that had a Bay Area campus in Campbell until 2018.

Details: For tickets to the awards presentation and the Andrés/Penn talk, go to commonwealthclub.org.