The world has slowed down, travelers are staying home and although we are limiting our social contacts, communities are coming together. Take Monterey County in California, where restaurants, hotels and food writers are reaching out, even during this time of social distancing.
The tour and transportation service CaliFunDay Tours in Pacific Grove has converted its tour vans to assist local restaurants and grocery stores with food delivery to customers. Meanwhile, Esteban Restaurant in Monterey’s Casa Munras Garden Hotel & Spa is donating hot meals on the fourth Friday of each month as part of San Carlos Church Cathedral’s food pantry operation (the ministry provides the needy and homeless in the community with hot meals).
Other dining venues doing their part include Old Fisherman’s Grotto and its sister restaurant The Fish Hopper (Old Fisherman’s Wharf), where the owner provides meals for his staff (even those recently unemployed) and their families every day (combined this counts for over 300 employees). The owner is also helping feed the homeless that live around the wharf. And Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, perched along the Pacific Coast, and part of the Nepenthe/Phoenix Corporation, which also consists of Cafe Kevah and The Phoenix Shop properties, donated $10,000 to the Monterey County Food Bank, and $10,000 to the new Community Foundation for Monterey County COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Meanwhile, food writer Raul Nava, a Monterey County freelancer and foodie created a detailed list of restaurants still open for business in the area. The list is continually updated and is now a go-to resource for residents looking to support the local food and restaurant community.
For more feel-good stories—and we need them now more than ever—click here and here.
