Camila Alves & Matthew McConaughey Volunteered in Paris for a Worthy, Culinary Cause
The couple that volunteers together, stays together — and celebrity couple Camila Alves McConaughey and Matthew McConaughey are perfect examples of that. Camila and Matthew recently took time out of their Euro trip to volunteer at Refettorio Paris, a five-star restaurant-slash-community-kitchen located in the heart of Paris that transforms surplus ingredients into delicious meals for those in need.
A few days ago, Camila posted to her Instagram a photo of her and Matthew, both donning Refettorio aprons. “In Paris, we got to volunteer at our friend @jr and his wife’s amazing @refettorioparis. They created a 5-star restaurant to serve free daily meals to refugees and homeless. I have never seen anything like it!” Camila wrote in the caption.
The idea of Refettorio Paris was conceived by Food for Soul, a non-profit organization founded by chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore to “empower communities to fight against food waste through social inclusion,” Refettorio’s website states. According to People, the McConaugheys, however, are friends with French artists Jean René, who goes by JR, and Prune Nourry. JR and Nourry created installations specifically for Refettorio Paris and led the artistic team for the transformation of the space, which opened in 2015.
“When guests arrive, someone checks their coat. They have beautiful dishware, the room looks like it’s from a movie, the meals are cooked by Michelin Star chefs, and the list goes on and on!” Camila continued on Instagram. “They bring a dignified experience to guests (refugees and homeless) that’s been lacking for many of them for a long time!”
Following the A-list humanitarians‘ experience at Refettorio, Camila highly suggests everyone volunteer at the community kitchen.
“I don’t know why we can’t do that in the states?! If you are in Paris, you must try to volunteer and donate!!” Camila said.
Camila and Matthew have been traveling through France this month with their three children: Levi, 11; Vida, 9; and Livingston, 6. When the family isn’t jet-setting, however, Camila keeps busy with her organic baby food company, Yummy Spoonfuls, which she joined because she struggled to find clean food options for her kids.
“I’m sitting there going, ‘What’s going on? Why is it so hard to open the freezer and go in the store and pick up the most pure baby and kids food?’” Camila said at SheKnows Media’s BlogHer18 Health conference in New York in January 2018. At the annual event, Camila emceed The Pitch, which celebrates and elevates female entrepreneurs. “If I’m struggling this much with creating something in my own home, I’m sure there are a lot of moms out there who have the same struggle of giving their kids the most pure, most nutritious form of baby and kids food.”
Yummy Spoonfuls was founded in 2006 by Agatha Achindu and Camila joined the company as co-owner and chief brand director in 2014.
“I played a fundamental role in scaling the company to nationwide distribution,” Camila told Forbes in March. “Between raising money, initiating relationships with retailers and closing accounts, helping with packaging innovation and design and marketing and public relations.”
Since joining the company, Achindu and Camila have launched 33 different Yummy Spoonfuls products in 1,500 stores.
“All I’m asking is for us to be honest with ourselves and companies to be honest as well because I’m kind of tired of the bullshit,” Camila said at BlogHer — and we couldn’t agree more.
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