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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WHERE WILL I BE COOKING:

Gail Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has lent her expertise as a permanent judge on BRAVO’s Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series Top Chef, now in its 19th successful season. She is a co-host of The Good Dish, a new daily syndicated series that premiered in January 2022, offering delicious recipes, real-life wisdom, and conversations on the topics of the day, and most recently was host of Top Chef Amateurs, as well as Iron Chef Canada. From 2004 to 2019, Gail served as special projects director at FOOD & WINE.

In February 2012, she published her first book, Talking With My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater. Her first cookbook, Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating, was released in October 2017. Nominated for an IACP award for best general cookbook, it features recipes inspired by Gail’s world travels—all made with accessible ingredients and with smart, simple techniques for successful family meals and easy entertaining.

Gail frequently appears on other daytime television shows such as TODAY on NBC, Rachael Ray and The Talk, and was named the #1 Reality TV Judge in America by The New York Post.

She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson College, co-founder of Bumble Pie Productions, and the newest Global Ambassador for Children in Conflict, an international organization committed to protecting, educating and providing critical aid for the world’s most vulnerable children affected by war. Gail sits on the board of several other nonprofit organizations and philanthropic endeavors, including City Harvest and Hot Bread Kitchen.  She currently lives in New York City with her husband, Jeremy and their two children, Dahlia and Kole.