Los Angeles is almost four months retired from forest fires That destroyed more than 18,000 homes and structures in January, but much of the damage remains, both emotional and material. A Los Angeles store expects to provide comfort to those who have lost their homes, even if it provides only one appearance of normality, restoring cooking books.
On Thursday, the kitchen store that now serves announced a new initiative called Friends of the Shop. It is a call to action that will allow anyone to buy specific kitchen books requested by those who have lost their collections in fires.
“[It’s] Listen to the stories of how they join [a cookbook] Or what it means to them, and just be able to give them a small part of something that feels familiar, “says Michelle Mungcal, who operates the Chinatown store with her husband, Ken Concepcion.” We can never replace any edition of 'The joy of cooking' that his father gave him, but if he can see that in his wake and make him think that, it means something. “
In the months elapsed since the fires, Mungcal says that now the service has seen several customers buying to replace the collections of lost kitchen books; This next series of fund collectors and donation units could help survivors “build a sense of home” no matter how their current home looks.
The kitchen book store joins other members of the Los Angeles culinary community to help those affected by fires. Authors, chefs and food writers such as Molly Baz, Natasha Feldman Bauch and Jess Damuck have Organized community events and gifts For kitchen appliances, pantry articles and more in an effort to help those who have lost their homes to rebuild their lives, even when some of them have lost their homes.
The initiative, says Mungcal, has been in process since they finished processing the experience of the fires. Mungcal, Concept and his daughter live in Pasadena, three blocks from the nearest burns zone. Friends lost their homes, colleagues lost their homes, her daughter's teacher lost her home.
“He has definitely impacted the community in which we live personally,” says Mungcal, “so once we settled a little at our point, we knew we wanted to be able to help in some way.”
The first phase of the project is now live: a questionnaire on the website that now serves where those who have lost their houses and collections of kitchen books can enter up to 10 book titles they expect to receive, as well as their preference for a new book, a used book or any condition.
Now serving in Chinatown.
(Solomon O. Smith / for the Times)
The team that now serves has also begun to enumerate the requested titles, which can then be bought by those who wish to help. The process was inspired by another small business, the Hedley & Bennett apron company, whose “Wake Up and Fight” initiative helped keep it afloat during the pandemic. For each bought mask, Hedley and Bennett donated a mask to lifeguards and other essential workers.
“The reality is that, like a small bookstore, we cannot give books, unfortunately,” says Mungcal. “It helps us sell some books while it is very difficult for small businesses, and then also being able to pay it a bit.”
Mungcal also plans to communicate with editors and authors to ask about the donation of specific kitchen books that have been requested by those in need.
The team also has a plan for kitchen books that could be more expensive to replace, such as rare editions or positions: merchandise with art by NathanimyL Russell – Who also designed the advertisement for Friends of the Shop – will help raise funds, like Raffles, which will be ongoing. These raffles could include substance subscriptions or cooking classes from more cookbook authors, content creators and others in the food industry. Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Ruth Reichl, Nik Sharma, Hetty McKinnon and Liz Tests are some of the authors who have already taken a step forward.
The questions about how people can donate their own collections of kitchen books to the cause are already arriving; Now serving the hope of organizing donation units in the future, perhaps for an event in July, six months of fire ravages. They imagine a free collection day of kitchen books and possibly donations of brands of new kitchen items for fire survivors, similar to the stock that pantry event, the author of the Baz cooking books Organized in February.
The way to recovery, and even to recover these kitchen books, will be long, says Mungcal; She wants people to know that there will be weeks and months ahead with the possibility of donating and helping the community lover of the kitchen books of the.
For rifa, event and donation ads, follow Now serving on Instagram in @nowservingla. Now it is located in the Plaza del Distano East of Chinatown in 727 N. Broadway, Unit 133.
