When Guido and his daughter Teresa Mastrapaolo, of San Francisco’s famed Gio Gelati, visited the homes of elderly Italians in San Francisco, bringing free cups of gelato, their deliveries caught the attention of the The Wall Street Journal, who told their story and credited one of the organizations that helped to make it happen.
That organization– Italian Community Services– is the oldest Italian non-profit in the country with a 104-year old history in the Bay Area. Since COVID-19, Director Pietro Bonanno and his wife Serra, have been building a network of volunteers and organizations, including Cooking Instructor Viola Buitoni and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, to provide Italian food and organic produce to Italians young and old in need of nourishment and company.
Now, it’s not uncommon for the organization to assemble over 100 care packages a week brimming with farm vegetables from FEED Sonoma, an organic co-op representing 80 farms that once sold the majority of their produce to the fine dining restaurants in the Bay Area.
Cooking Instructor Viola Buitoni, who is also a contributor for La Cucina Italiana, connected both organizations. Since March, Buitoni has curated the boxes, spending hours writing seasonal and nutritional recipes every week, like lasagna with fava bean. The recipes always sound conversational, so that the cook feels “a friendly voice coming to their kitchen.”
“I know that our audience is in love with Italian food,” said Buitoni. “I know from my own experience of seniors in my family that the cooking has to be simple to put together, familiar and interesting at the same time - These are Bay Area people after all!”
The boxes also contain Italian specialties like D. Barbero chocolate spreads and cookies, and dry orzo thanks to contributions from local importer Italfoods and Colavita.