Chicago chef Joey Morelli is on a mission to end child hunger around the world

deleciousfood | September 19, 2023 | Chef | No Comments

Highland Park, September 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Highland Park, Illinois –

Celebrity chef Joey Morelli uses his culinary talents to help unhappy children around the world get the help they need to overcome their struggles.

Chef Joey, owner of Max’s Deli in Highland Park, Illinois, began cooking for children during his first visit in July 2022 to the Hope For Silent Voices Hope House orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During his visit, he taught children at the orphanage how to buy fresh produce and cook nutritious meals within a budget. He also helped furnish the kitchen with modern amenities such as a three-compartment sink and appliances like a stove, oven, grill and refrigerator.

Joey

Subsequently, Joey made another visit to the Hope House orphanage several months later where he helped the children with many projects such as building them a playground. Throughout his visit, he recorded numerous vlogs documenting his journey, capturing the ecstatic reactions of the children he cooked for. He also participated in a charity drive in Stung Meanchey in Cambodia where he helped distribute 25 kilos of rice each to more than 150 families.

Chef Joey also uploaded several other videos from his time in Cambodia, discussing the emotional reaction of visiting the country’s battlefields, visiting the central market in Phnom Penh, preparing a healthy breakfast for the children , teaching children to grill hamburgers, cooking them hearty. Mexican dinner, take the kids for bubble tea and much more. Before returning to America, Chef Joey also stopped in Thailand and shared videos of himself enjoying activities like scuba diving, climbing the Big Buddha, and having a delicious beachside dinner .

All of his video content has been uploaded to his YouTube channel where he regularly shares his experiences cooking for children abroad and at home in Chicago. His charitable enterprise, Joey’s Food Fight, is currently accepting donations to fund trips to many other parts of the world where children and families are in desperate need of help due to issues such as poverty or local geopolitical conflicts. Readers interested in following Joey’s journey are encouraged to visit his TikTok page at https://www.tiktok.com/@joeysfoodfight.

During an interview on Day Time Chicago ahead of his second trip, Chef Joey revealed the reason he chose Joey’s Food Fight as his charitable avenue. He says: “I’m 50 and I failed my marriage. No children. My mission now is to take care of the children. So I told myself I would travel around the world and cook for children. I met a guy who has an orphanage in Cambodia and I said, “Eric, I’m coming to the orphanage,” and he said OK. It was 6 months ago. Now I’m going back to cooking for the kids in the kitchen I built for them the first time.

A few months later, upon returning to America, Chef Joey cooked food for 300 displaced and homeless Ukrainian migrants in Chicago. He partnered with Chef Clause to cook for them as part of a campaign sponsored by Catholic Charities and Sysco Foods, the latter of which was the former’s largest donor and also donated food for the Chicago event.

Most recently, Chef Joey traveled to central Ukraine to cook for families affected by the ongoing war in Eastern Europe. He talked about the details of his latest mission during a promotional segment on WGN News where he also shared a recipe for Ukrainian pancakes with viewers.

“I’m going to stay for a month,” said Chef Joey. “My goal there is to cook for women, for children and for some wounded soldiers. Some resorts in some regions of Ukraine have been demolished or deserted. They use these places to house people. What they lack is money to buy food and chefs to cook. »