Beyond the Plate
A Shout Out to Local Heroes
Many local food and drink businesses (and their leaders) have inspired us these past few weeks. Every act of generosity we’ve seen has involved ...
Silvana Salcido Esparza - Beyond the Plate Hero
Silvana Salcido Esparza has enjoyed some success as a chef/restaurateur. She's been inducted into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame and nominated 7 times for a James Beard Award. She's been on national TV and the restaurant, Barrio Cafe, has been featured in just about every guide book as the place for a real taste of Mexican food.
So you'd think that during a pandemic shut down, Chef Esparza, who oftentimes suffers from debilitating pain from a chronic condition called sarcoidosis, would rest on her fame and fortune. But she saw suffering around her restaurant. People out of work. Hunger. Sadness.
With the restaurant closed down, she started collecting donations from neighbors who literally threw cash over the fence of her house which adjoins the restaurant. With that money and more donated to a local food purveyor, Chef Esparza arranged for meals to be prepared in her otherwise closed kitchen, packaging them, and leaving them in the parking lot for whoever needed a meal.
And they came. The homeless, the disenfranchised, the hungry, and the needy.
Once Esparza tested negative for COVID-19, she joined the kitchen staff. She prepared more and more food and more and more people showed up. When the job got too big for one person, Esparza asked for additional volunteers to help in the kitchen (properly attired with masks and gloves). Tens of local chefs showed up to help. Donations of food arrived. And soon she was preparing hundreds of meals a day, some of it delivered to hospitals for the healthcare professionals working to save people's lives, some for kids who could not get their food at now-shuttered schools and for anyone in need. No questions asked. Food for anyone who needed it.
So a woman who could otherwise have used the time to recuperate instead used her influence and her energy to feed those in need.
Who do you want to recognize? You can read about more local heroes in our Beyond the Plate collaboration with Niman Ranch at bit.ly/2SFoIrA.
Find it
2814 N 16th Street
Phoenix, AZ
85004
602.636.0240
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