It's a busy but different kind of lunch rush at Tarallucci e Vino Restaurant on the Upper West Side. The staff prepared 350 meals Wednesday -- not for customers; for charity.

Owner Luca Di Pietro is donating the meals to people who live in supportive housing. It's an expansion of the Feed the Frontlines NYC program he helped to create three months ago as the COVID-19 crisis exploded.

His restaurant group and about 20 other restaurant owners joined to provide free meals to doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients. With hospitals no longer in crisis mode, they've decided to help feed New Yorkers who can't afford to put food on the table.
 

What You Need To Know


  • Program to feed doctors and nurses now expanded to feed people in need.

  • In three months, Feed the Frontlines NYC has raised $1.6 million in donations.

  • The program has so far prepared and delivered 110,000 meals.

  • The program has helped more than 100 restaurant employees working during COVID-19 crisis.

 

“We just never exposed to this before. Now that we understand it, it’s like, yeah, we want to feed people in our own restaurants, but also everyone deserves to have a warm delicious meal,“ said Di Pietro.

The program has now collected $1.6 million in donations. It's been used to prepare and deliver 110,000 meals so far, and keep more than 100 restaurant workers on the job during the crisis.

“Of course I feel grateful. Otherwise I have two children, so it’s hard to live in this city and to keep going, rent, schools, and

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After seeing a growing need for food because of the COVID-19 crisis, Di Pietro has decided to make this charity work a permanent part of his restaurant business.

“My eyes have been opened to the crisis of people in the city," he said. "One of the richest cities in the world, we have people that cannot feed themselves."

Di Pietro is doing all this while trying to figure out when and how he can reopen to diners. Most of his restaurants don't have enough outdoor space for outdoor dining, and even his indoor space doesn't have enough room for keeping tables six feet apart.

“It’s difficult. It’s going to be very complicated," said Di Pietro.

What is not complicated for Di Pietro: when New Yorkers are in need, New Yorkers help out.

“Hopefully this crisis will bring us, will make us better, will make us better and take us to the other side and more positivity,“ said Di Pietro.

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