Howie Kaplan was sitting inside his bar Monday morning, celebrating with friends that Hurricane Ida's wrath wasn't nearly as catastrophic as they'd all worried it'd be, when someone stopped in to ask if he'd be giving out food that afternoon. An operation he started at the beginning of the pandemic to feed thousands throughout the city had started to slow down in the past couple of weeks as New Orleans boasted an abnormally high vaccination rate for Louisiana and more and more service industry workers were able to get back to work. But with the city's electrical grid ruined by the storm, Kaplan realized it was time to ramp back up. There were roughly 1 million of his neighbors without power and thus without a means to prepare food. By Saturday morning, about 15,000 meals had been given out to front line workers, first responders and to the city's "culture bearers — just everyone who makes New Orleans, New Orleans," Kaplan said. Despite his business being shuttered — which was also without power until Friday morning — and despite the blistering heat and humidity, droves of people have continued to show each day to prepare wholesome, and often quite intricate dishes. "This is how we celebrate," Kaplan said. "This is how we cry, this is how we laugh. When we are in pain, we celebrate." Story by Krista Johnson of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. Photos by Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal.