On the menu at Friday’s meal distribution in Altadena: a can-do attitude in the face of disaster.
Jose and Sandra Valenzuela, owners of the Grocery Outlet at 2270 Lake Avenue in Altadena, opened up their parking lot to Jarritos, the Mexican soda company based in Long Beach, which in turn gathered local restaurants to serve hot meals to wildfire victims, first-responders, volunteers and anyone in the community.
The store remains closed, but the Valenzuelas said it can still act as a community hub. Since the fires, nonprofits and agencies such as the American Red Cross and FEMA have set up tables and tents here, distributing PPEs and other supplies. Today, a buffet serving hot meals from four restaurants operated beside it.
“Food is our love language,” said Bret Thompson of Pez Coastal Kitchen in Pasadena. “This is our community so whatever we can do to serve our community, we’ll do.”
Thompson and his wife Lucy Ramirez Thompson live in San Gabriel with their two sons. Since the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out, the family, who also owns Pez Cantina in Los Angeles, has donated food to first responders, utility workers, and the Pasadena Humane Society.
“We kicked into action right off the bat,” said Ramirez Thompson, who is also president of the Latino Restaurant Association. “Like we said, food is our love language and we’re always sending food out when anyone is in need.”
Yuca’s in Pasadena served cochinita pibil tacos, Yucatan-style barbecue pork. Owner Dora Herrera said her restaurant is already part of the LA Wildfire Community Meals program, which allows people to donate and help a restaurant cook meals for the needy, filling one need while keeping businesses open and employees working.
“It’s about others,” Herrera said. “If you focus on helping somebody else, your pain is less.”
Before the meal distribution, which served about 200 people, Michelle Pinedo of Jarritos said the company donated pallets of its soda to The Dream Center in Los Angeles, the Pasadena Community Job Center, World Central Kitchen, fire stations in Malibu and Pasadena, “basically anyone who would accept our donations.”
“There are so many different levels of impact with these fires,” Pinedo said. “So if we can help the people who have lost their homes or been displaced, and help the restaurants who are closed or seeing less traffic, we’ll do it.”
Ten volunteers from the South Bay Chinese American Association of California USA helped serve citrus and herb-roasted chicken with yam cheddar mash, green beans and guajillo salsa from Pez Coastal Kitchen.
Among them was Yvonne Yiu, former mayor of Monterey Park, and Jorge Herrera Avila, councilmember of the San Gabriel City Council.
“I feel we’re living in the now and the now needs help,” Avila said. “These volunteers just jumped up at the opportunity to help. That’s the community coming together and making it happen.”
Workers from the Red Cross, and Los Angeles County, as well as construction crews cleaning up burned buildings on Mendocino Avenue lined up for the meals.
Maggie Cortez, owner of El Patron Mexican Restaurant on Lake Avenue in Altadena, kept busy making sure her serving trays are well-stocked with chicken and beef burritos and assorted salsas. Her station sits close to the “Greetings from Altadena” mural that survived the fire, save for some heat bubbles on top, a permanent scar from the Eaton Fire.
Cortez, who moved to Altadena 14 years ago, said both her home and restaurant on Lake Avenue survived the wildfire, although there is some damage to her backyard. El Patron remains closed though, which means she and her 13 employees can’t work.
“I’ve said this even before the fires, in Altadena, we’re not neighbors, we’re family,” Cortez said. “We always support each other. And we never give up.”
Cortez said as her family packed up to evacuate on the night of Jan. 7, her daughter told her to leave the photo of Rosa Cortez, her grandmother Mama Rosa, who died in September of cancer.
“My daughter put the photo on the sofa and said her Mama Rosa, my Madre Bella will watch over the house,” Cortez said. “I got my three kids, including my daughter who is pregnant, my dad, two dogs, one cat and my son’s turtle, I got them out and then I came back.”
Cortez would spend the next frenetic days fielding calls from neighbors who couldn’t get into the area, checking on one home here, delivering batteries to another home there, finding ways to deliver food to others who stuck it out in the neighborhood.
“I had no power, no water, but I never stopped,” Cortez said. “It felt like I was out as soon as I hit the pillow at night and then I do exactly the same thing the next day.”
She said she will never forget returning to her home and seeing the framed photograph of her mother Rosa on the sofa.
“In my head, I hear my mama’s voice, ‘Mija, si si puede,’ ‘Mija, you can do it,’ even though I know the next days, for a long time, will be a challenge, but these are the words I remember from my mom. ‘You know what you need to do. Be strong. Be positive.’”