Appetite for Good: Ending Hunger, Saving Small Businesses

Our local communities are facing food insecurity, due to unprecedented unemployment. Our local restaurants, a cultural and economic treasure, are facing extreme financial hardship. Mountain View Appetite for Good and Community Services Agency are working together to solve both problems.

The pandemic brought incredible economic hardship to our city, causing unemployment that directly led to food insecurity among many residents, and at the same time, our restaurants, an economic and cultural treasure, have suffered. I founded this program to help the community solve both problems at once. We help both food insecure residents and restaurants make it through this time.

The process is simple. Donors buy a voucher for a local restaurant meal through the donation platform, Roonga, and then CSA distributes the vouchers to their clients. Restaurants receive the full price of the voucher, and donations are tax deductible for the purchaser as an in-kind donation to CSA. Vouchers can be purchased here: https://www.roonga.com/appetiteforgoodcsa

According to CSA Executive Director, Tom Myers, their clients are really struggling right now. For many, it is so difficult to find resources of any kind, particularly food. It’s a win-win all-around. Helping local restaurants also keeps people employed, then hopefully they won’t need CSA’s services.

The first three restaurants in the program are long-time Mountain View restaurants Ristorante Don Giovanni, Olympus Caffe, and Ephesus. We are looking for more restaurants to join our program. According to Olympus Caffe and Ephesus owner Mehmet Vural, “I joined this program because it is a good way to be a part of this community in this challenging time.”

Buy some meals, spread the word!