Coronavirus Latest: Northern Liberties Restaurant 'El Camino Real' Starts Community Kitchen For Those In Need During Pandemic
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's a tough time for restaurants across this country right now. But at El Camino Real in Northern Liberties, they're not letting their own challenges get in the way of helping others.
They started a community kitchen for those who may need a little extra support during this time.
Eyewitness News spoke to the restaurant's general manager, Tim Florentino, on how the community kitchen works.
"Once the closedown happened - the shelter-in-place - the whole thing was, how do we give back? The owner wanted to do something that basically fed the neighborhood. So we came up with the concept," Florentino said. "We have a $15 meal. You can come in and pay full price, you can pay what you can so if you come in and only have $5, no problem, or you can pay it forward."
Florentino says the "pay it forward tab" allows someone to pay for two meals.
"That way if you pay for two meals and someone comes in and they can't pay it all, no problem," Florentino said. "We want to make sure people are eating, we want to make sure the whole area is getting fed."
He says the response to the "pay it forward tab" was so successful they were able to go out into the community and donate meals.
"We decided that every 10 [pay it forward tabs] we're going to find somewhere that needs food," Florentino said. "We were lucky enough to go over to St. Christopher's and drop off for the nurses, we helped out Project Safe last week, and we are going to be working with Lutheran Settlement House."
The restaurant has also created a virtual tip jar to help out its own employees during the pandemic.