Update on Our Hurricane Response

Applications for Hurricanes Helene and Milton are now closed.

Cases are processed in the order in which they were received. We are distributing weekly updates regarding processing time; please watch for emails from our team!

If you applied for assistance unrelated to these disasters, we are working as quickly as possible to process your case. Please reach out to your case manager directly or casemanagement@southernsmoke.org for any updates. Thank you for your patience during this time of unprecedented volume.

We are so grateful for the outpouring of support, and thanks to generous donors, to date we have granted $680,800 to 487 F+B workers affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton with 2,500 more being processed.

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Benchawan
Chef Image
Jabthong Painter
Houston, TX /
Street to Kitchen
WHERE WILL I BE COOKING:

Since learning how to cook in her grandmother’s neighborhood restaurant in Central Thailand, Benchawan Jabthong Painter has been a natural chef. After marrying her husband Graham, Painter moved to Houston in 2015 and jumped into the city’s food scene, bringing her deep knowledge of Thai cuisine to restaurants like Saltair and Theodore Rex. In 2020, the Painters opened Street to Kitchen, which features all-scratch-made Thai foods rooted in her grandmother’s recipes and techniques. Their second restaurant in collaboration with Chef David Skinner, The Preserve at Eculent, opened in 2023 in Kemah, Texas. Painter won the 2023 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Texas. 

Generously supported by Shell Energy