{"id":36650,"date":"2025-07-31T10:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T10:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36650\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T10:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T10:40:15","slug":"toronto-woman-goes-viral-after-hosting-free-buffet-for-passengers-on-the-ttc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36650\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto woman goes viral after hosting free buffet for passengers on the TTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/toronto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Toronto<\/a> woman is going viral for giving a whole new meaning to \u201cfast food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753129028_943_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Izzy Petraglia, a freelance writer and publicist, turned a <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/ttc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TTC<\/a> subway commute into an extraordinary act of generosity and community building by hosting a free buffet for passengers on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Petraglia brought her passion project to life when she and a few friends set up a full buffet table aboard a Line 1 subway train at around 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by a viral New York City subway Thanksgiving dinner video she saw months ago, Petraglia said she had long dreamed of recreating something similar, ahead of launching her own cookbook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw the video and thought, \u2018That would be cool to do one day.\u2019 A few weeks ago, I finally said, \u2018You know what? I\u2019m going to do it,\u2019\u201d she told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Petraglia said she prepared all the food herself the day of, serving a variety of dishes and treats, including spicy miso cucumber salad, pancit bihon, sweet and spicy tofu, noodles and cookies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ube white chocolate cookies were by far the biggest hit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tPetraglia and her friends serve a variety of homemade dishes on the TTC including ube white chocolate chip cookies. (via Izzy Petraglia).\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tIzzy Petraglia\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The culinary journey began at Glencairn Station and ran up to Finch and back down again, lasting nearly two hours.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753128969_722_national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, curious passengers began to take notice and participate in the feast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first, people were just laughing or taking photos,\u201d Petraglia said. \u201cBut then some came up to grab plates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne woman had just worked a 12-hour shift and told us she could cry from how hungry she was. That meant a lot to me, and when I realized that\u2019s why I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A handwritten flyer listing all ingredients was handed out with each plate, ensuring passengers with allergies had full transparency.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11311291\/hulk-hogan-daughter-brooke-statement\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/hulk-hogan-brooke.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tHulk Hogan\u2019s daughter breaks silence about estranged father\u2019s death\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11311867\/virgina-council-member-lee-volger-set-on-fire-danville\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/vogler.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tVirginia councillor set on fire after attacker douses him in gasoline\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While Petraglia did receive some backlash online over hygiene concerns, she said her team made hygiene a top priority, regularly sanitizing and serving the food themselves rather than letting people self-serve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was careful, we sanitized, we listed all allergens, served people, and we did it as safely as possible,\u201d she told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>The subway feast wasn\u2019t just a one-off stunt, according to Petraglia, who plans to do another one in a few months. \u201cI love gathering people over food,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone on the TTC is in their own little world. I wanted to get people out of that and talking to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tA group of passengers on the TTC enjoy the spontaneous feast.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tIzzy Petraglia\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Petraglia is continuing to develop her cookbook, bake for friends and dream up new ways to connect with her city, one plate at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Amid rising inflation, a worsening housing crisis, and growing food insecurity in Toronto, Petraglia said she\u2019s grateful her initiative could provide a warm meal and a moment of connection to those who needed it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood is how we connect, it always has been,\u201d Petraglia said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Toronto<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Toronto woman is going viral for giving a whole new meaning to \u201cfast food.\u201d Izzy Petraglia, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,3302,10479],"class_list":["post-36650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto","tag-ttc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}