Chef José Andrés (right), Chefs for Ukraine – Poland
industry, we grow nourishing foods, and together let’s help Chef Andrés nourish a nation in need. I challenge each produce company to join me and make a donation to World Central Kitchen.” For Wish Farms, the response to Dasher’s plea was immediate, and it came on the heels of Nick Wishnatzki, the Public Relations Manager at Wish Farms, seeing Andrés on Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN. “My great-grandfather immigrated from Ukraine in 1904,” Wishnatzki said. “He
was a pushcart peddler in Kyiv. Basically, all the pushcart peddlers were Jewish, and there were laws against Jewish people owning standing businesses. So, they got creative and had pushcarts instead. He wanted to escape the oppression that was happening, so he and his sister left and came to America.” Once he was processed through Ellis Island, Wishnatzki’s great-grandfather started selling fruits, vegetables and fish from his pushcart on the streets of New
York. Soon, he had a fleet of pushcarts— and eventually he and another peddler joined together to start a wholesale business. Thus Wish Farms was born in 1922, and the milestone combined with the horror unfolding on his television screen spurred the Wishnatzki family to act. “I mean, gosh, it’s our hundredth anniversary,” Wishnatzki said. “We just felt a really strong connection.” Wish Farms donated $5,000 to World Central Kitchen via The Wish Farms
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Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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