Mar 31

Mar 31 Sacramento's finest restaurants cook delivery meals for low-income seniors during coronavirus shutdown

Building up business, Giving back to the community

Seven hundred twenty five seniors living in low-income apartment complexes in Sacramento Tuesday began receiving prepared meals and snack bags prepared by some of Sacramento’s finest restaurants.

Mulvaney’s, Allora, Canon, Camden, and Binchoyachi are preparing boxes for each senior every Monday with prepared meals that will last four or five days, plus a snack bag. Each kit costs the city $30. The money comes from the City Attorney’s Justice for Neighbors program, which is funded by fines levied on properties that host nuisance businesses like drug or prostitution enterprises. The meals are being delivered to residents of Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency apartment complexes by Paratransit drivers.

“This is another great example of Sacramento teamwork in action,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg, whose office spearheaded the effort. “Seniors who are stuck inside get fed, restaurants get to preserve some of their income and keep their employees working, and farmers get to keep selling their produce. This is our farm to fork identify expressed in the best possible way.”

The total cost of the program is $174,000 for eight weeks. The restaurants will use the money to keep their employees working and continue to pay suppliers and farmers for ingredients.

“Food insecurity is a challenge for thousands of Sacramento residents every day, and the coronavirus emergency is testing our region’s safety net,” said City Councilmember Steve Hansen. “Sacramento restaurants have always stepped up to big social challenges, and they’re again providing that they are not just our economic backbone, but our heart.”

The restaurant food delivery launch comes a day after Mayor Steinberg announced that $169,134 of the first distributions from the new Donate4Sacramento relief fund will pay for the Sacramento Food Bank to create weekly grocery bags for 1,380 needy families whose children already receive free breakfast and lunch from the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Since the schools have been closed, SCUSD has distributed up to 31,000 free meals for children each day, but it became clear to district leaders that adults in the same families often lacked sufficient food. The neediest families will now receive two bags of groceries weekly when they come to pick up the children's meals.