海角大神

Before coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick's trips to this city鈥檚 South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago.

Now Mr. Mallick is a South Side regular 鈥� and a popular one. He regularly arrives bearing food for the hungry from his Indian restaurant several miles to the north, in the city鈥檚 downtown.

鈥淭hank you, sugar, for the meals. They鈥檙e so delicious!鈥� one woman recently shouted to Mr.聽Mallick outside a South Side YWCA. He recorded her response on his phone to share it with his staff.

鈥淕od bless you!鈥� she added, raising her arms for emphasis.

Mr.聽Mallick has personally delivered thousands of meals cooked and packed by his staff 鈥� among them, chickpea curry and tandoori chicken with roasted cottage cheese, sweet corn, peas, and rice. Volunteers from neighborhood organizations then take them to children, retirees, and the multitudes who鈥檝e been laid off or sick during the pandemic.

鈥淲e all need to help each other,鈥� Mr.聽Mallick says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the best way to get through a crisis.鈥�

His restaurant, ROOH, is one of more than 2,400 eateries, from New York City to Oakland, California, working with the nonprofit聽World Central Kitchen聽to provide meals to the hungry. Traditionally, the organization has paid restaurants $10 a meal to feed people affected by natural disasters, such as Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.

Now the organization is focused on this current crisis, as are many other entities that help feed the hungry. They include food banks and other nonprofits, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is buying produce, meat, and dairy products from farmers for its growing聽food box聽program. Many U.S. children also have been receiving meals provided by a large network of public and private sources at school pickup sites.

World Central Kitchen is among those that provide meals to schoolchildren. But its leaders are worried about their ability to sustain the effort in an extended crisis.

So they're lobbying Congress to provide federal emergency funding to help bring the restaurant model to every state. The idea is to help not only the hungry, but also restaurant workers and farmers, who've been hard-hit by the impacts of coronavirus.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a domino effect of impact,鈥� says Nate Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen, which was founded by chef Jose Andres and his wife, Patricia. They鈥檝e tagged this latest response #ChefsForAmerica.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to begin rolling out the Senate GOP bill soon. Whether it will contain language from a World Central Kitchen-inspired bill 鈥� originally called the FEED Act and sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers 鈥� remains to be seen. Congress resumes this week and lawmakers are on two-week sprint hoping to approve the next round of virus aid by month鈥檚 end.

Mr.聽Mook says the longevity of this crisis requires federal aid, and he and others anticipate food insecurity worsening in the months to come as unemployment benefits come to an end for some.

鈥淲e feel like this is the calm before the storm,鈥� says Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the聽Hunger Task Force聽of Milwaukee.

Ms. Tussler also is frustrated with the sometimes chaotic nature of donations in this current climate and the difficulty 鈥� partly due to social distancing 鈥� of determining the nature of people鈥檚 food emergencies. Rather than the government distributing food boxes, for instance, she supports increasing food stamp assistance, also known as SNAP, to ensure that those most in need are fed.

Either way, Verna Swan, a retired nurse who lives in Englewood and volunteers to deliver meals from ROOH and other restaurants, says the service is greatly appreciated. She and her nephew, Israel Swan, took meals to seniors in their neighborhood in recent days.

鈥淲e鈥檙e family. We look out for each other,鈥� says Verna Swan, a volunteer for聽I Grow,聽an organization that serves the neighborhood, where she first moved when she was a teen.

She says these meals also have connected the residents with new people and cultures. Several had never tasted Indian food before.

This is not how Mr.聽Mallick, a longtime tech executive, had envisioned things going last year, when he first opened聽ROOH,聽which specializes in what he calls progressive Indian cuisine. But he pivoted, first delivering meals to hospital staff when Chicago cases skyrocketed in the spring.

To survive, he has turned a parking lot next to his restaurant into an outdoor dining patio and beefed up delivery services. And he鈥檚 looking to grow his mission with World Central Kitchen, which also has enabled him to hire more kitchen staff.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a blessing,鈥� he says.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. Lisa Mascaro, the AP's AP chief Congressional correspondent, contributed to this story.

Editor鈥檚 note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall聽for all our coronavirus coverage. It鈥檚 free.