“Everyone is fighting. Ultimately, there will be struggles every day we live, ”said Maria Valdez, owner of La Luna restaurant.
Normally, Valdez cooked and delivered hundreds of meals to people living on the streets, but this year she received some donations to help her cause.
“We just didn’t have the financing. We invest every penny of our savings being closed. But, you know, it doesn’t mean we won’t do that, ”she said.
Valdez spent Christmas morning driving around the city in search of people who were not staying in shelters. She said she has helped homeless people since she was a child and now wants to set a good example for her children.
“We closed in March, we opened again in October so that we could raise money to move forward with this project and the number of people who got their hands on it to make it happen – I was not going to do that,” said Valdez.
During the pandemic, many homeless people stayed in shelters or motels – but not all. Valdez said that’s why today’s event was so important.
“It is a little scarce here. We are also living in a world of COVID now,” she said. “I don’t know how many or the percentage of lost and forgotten are there now and still alive with It. My biggest fear is – has this pandemic started to decrease our population? You know, whether it’s the homeless population or the general population, but you can definitely see that there are very few bodies here that we are trying to feed. “
“But everyone I managed to feed is very open to receive it. It’s really cool, hot off the stove. You were filming us cooking, ”she added.
Valdez had about 400 meals in total to distribute.