they\u2019re always giving<\/a>. They even give to the homeless.\u201d<\/p>\nDiana Vallorz, who owns Tony & Alba\u2019s with her husband Al,\u00a0said she knows what it feels like to depend on others for assistance. When she was young, her father was hospitalized for three months, leaving her mother, who spoke limited English, to raise four children on her own. She said providing children with a meal consisting of pizza or pasta, carrots, fruit and milk or juice will make them feel like somebody cares.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many, many children that are having to go through this right now,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight, referring to the food benefit freeze. \u201cTheir parents are working, and they need that extra help, but now that extra help is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Italian restaurant posted on social media about the free meals, other restaurants throughout the Bay Area followed, including the Shrimp\u2019n Ain\u2019t Eazy food truck in East San Jose, Monster Pho in Oakland and Al Pastor Papi in San Francisco. Starting Nov. 1, Shrimp\u2019n Ain\u2019t Eazy is providing a free chicken garlic rice burrito and a drink for children. Al Pastor Papi is contributing a free burrito and Monster Pho beef, chicken or vegetarian pho.<\/p>\n
Monster Pho owner Tee Tran said his family depended on government support and food banks when they emigrated from Vietnam. Now he donates meals to homeless people and older adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand what it\u2019s like to not have food on the table,\u201d he told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cSo, when I saw (Tony & Alba\u2019s) do it \u2026 I didn\u2019t even think twice about it. Even though restaurants have a hard time right now, when we hear about kids not getting enough food to eat, we just want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony & Alba\u2019s plan to take their offer of free and discounted meals a step further. Al Vallorz said in early November he plans to contact local schools to share a list of restaurants offering free food to children. He\u2019s also compiling the list to share on his restaurant\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
He said community contributions help support the restaurant\u2019s ongoing charity program \u201cRandom Acts of Pizza,\u201d which includes giving gift certificates to churches to distribute and providing farmworkers with socks. The program has roots in the pandemic, when the restaurant delivered free pizza to older adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur business succeeds because of the community. So, it\u2019s our responsibility to give back,\u201d he told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n
Diana Vallorz said three to four families a day are coming to the restaurant for the free and discounted meals. She said a father on unemployment expressed his gratitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re wondering, \u2018What are we going to do? We have these kids that we have to feed,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThey were just appreciative knowing that we are thinking about them. It makes me feel good that like I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m supposed to be doing. I feel like my father \u2026 would be happy about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at\u00a0lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
This story originally appeared in San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAY AREA RESTAURANTS ARE STEPPING UP to provide meals to families affected by the ongoing federal government shutdown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3302,23500,3303,24383,4110,20852,412,88,90,89,881,198,3304,14609],"class_list":{"0":"post-33870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-calfresh","9":"tag-food-aid","10":"tag-food-assistance","11":"tag-free-food","12":"tag-funding","13":"tag-meals","14":"tag-restaurants","15":"tag-san-jose","16":"tag-san-jose-headlines","17":"tag-san-jose-news","18":"tag-san-jose-spotlight","19":"tag-santa-clara-county","20":"tag-snap","21":"tag-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}