Nonprofit Feed the Frontlines NYC works with local restaurants to provide free meals to health care workers and New Yorkers in need
By Lisa Rozner
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NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — We are approaching the two-year anniversary of New York City restaurants shutting down because of COVID.
One eatery says it survived that dark time because of a program that fed health care workers while also keeping cooks in the kitchen. As CBS2’s Lisa Rozner reported, that program is helping even more people today.
From the kitchen of Amor Cubano in East Harlem, to a long line outside the Latino Pastoral Action Center in Highbridge, the nonprofit Feed the Frontlines NYC is feeding New Yorkers in need through around a dozen restaurants all over the city.
It was born out of Tarallucci e Vino on the Upper West Side in March 2020, when a community member donated enough money to cover 40 meals for health care workers.
“People had colleagues who were dying and people didn’t have time to get food for themselves,” said Isabella Di Pietro, co-founder of Feed the Frontlines NYC.
De Pietro, 23, runs the nonprofit with her father, Luca, who owns multiple locations. At the time, he said he had to lay off 95 percent of staff, but by crowdfunding donations for meals:
“We brought back like about 50 percent of our staff just to make food and I had my head bartender that was doing deliveries,” Luca Di Pietro said.
The Di Pietros said there are many restaurants still down almost 50 percent in sales.
During an empty lunch hour, Amor Cubano still had a chef busy preparing meals for a senior center, which it does four times a week now.
“It’s been helping us a lot,” said Laura Munera, manager at Amor Cubano.
Thursday, two Bronx restaurants helped feed dozens of people at the Latino Pastoral Action Center.
“Sometimes if I get enough food, what I would do is, I would take the rice and the meat and I would put it in a baggy, put it in the freezer and then I can conserve it for another meal,” said Robin Majette, a Bronx resident.
The center organizer said at least 500 restaurant meals are given out each week, but they need more.
“We have to turn people away, because that’s how big the need is,” said Esteban Rivera, director of urban missions for the Latino Pastoral Action Center.
While mandates are being lifted, the Di Pietros say emergency funds are disappearing and donations are needed to help even more people than before the pandemic.
The program’s co-founders said more than 200,000 meals have been served since 2020.
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