Our Story

On March 15th, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio mandated that all New York City restaurants and bars close except for take-out and deliveries as part of the effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, medical professionals in our city’s hospitals are working around the clock to treat individuals impacted by the virus and a growing number of New Yorkers are facing food insecurity. 

My name is Luca Di Pietro and I am the founder of Tarallucci e Vino restaurant group, which has five establishments around New York City. The coronavirus immediately took a toll on my business: in March, I had to shut down four of my five locations and, most painfully, lay off 95 of my wonderful employees.

Two days after the mayor’s announcement, my wife received a message from her friend, Adair Roberts, who was writing from her home in Toronto. She wanted to find a way to help my family’s restaurants and New York City healthcare workers on the frontlines of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Adair ordered 40 dinners from Tarallucci e Vino, which we delivered to the hardworking ER staff at NYU Langone. Adair’s idea planted the seed for Feed the Frontlines NYC--an initiative to get more generous contributors like her to buy meals from restaurants around the city to be delivered to first responders. Following this, friends were inspired to launch their own Feed the Frontlines organizations across North America. Since then, Feed the Frontlines NYC has delivered over 150,000 nourishing meals to New Yorkers in need while helping more than 35 restaurants keep their lights on and bring 140 employees back to work. 

As the Feed the Frontlines NYC team expanded to serve 63 hospitals across New York we listened to forecasts of widespread, permanent restaurant closures and news that the city’s food-insecure population had swelled from an estimated 1.2 to 2 million people since the crisis began. It became increasingly clear that the next phase of the crisis was beginning -- one that required more organizations, including restaurants, to help feed the growing ranks of New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity. As we fight to re-emerge from the devastating health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope you’ll join us in our ongoing efforts to keep New Yorkers healthy, well fed, and employed.