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'Family Meal Roseville' pays struggling restaurants to provide free meals to community members

Local-based restaurant Nixtaco, Monk’s Cellar, and Randy Peter’s Catering and Event Center are now able to provide free meals thanks to Family Meal Roseville.

There’s a win-win situation for a lot of people and some businesses in Roseville. The city has worked out a collaboration to pay restaurants to get free meals to people who need them.

The program, called "Family Meal Roseville", kicked off on May 4 and is planned to run for at least six weeks. The program was brought to the area for people and restaurants struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Local-based restaurant Nixtaco, Monk’s Cellar, and Randy Peter’s Catering and Event Center are now able to provide free meals thanks to Family Meal Roseville.

“This was a new concept that was brought to me by some restaurant owners in Yolo County and in Sacramento and they're doing the same program there, too,” Deputy City manager Megan MacPherson said.

The city along with the Health Education Council then got to work creating a program tailored to Roseville.

“For some of the folks, every Monday or Wednesday or Friday, they're going to be getting a meal that feeds four people -- whether that's their own family or whether that's one person for four nights,” MacPherson said.

The meals are given at distribution sites that include affordable housing projects, senior living facilities, and a school meal distribution site. The city and Health Education Council worked with local non-profits to help identify each site.

“We had people with tears, just overwhelmed,” MacPherson said of the initial community reactions to the program.

The restaurants get $5 a meal from funding for the program that comes from a $50,000 grant from the city, $20,000 from the Placer Community Foundation’s COVID-19 response fund. Additional funding came from Sutter Health, Roseville Firefighters, and the Rotary Club of Roseville.

“People are losing jobs, having their hours cut back, so there's a lot of uncertainty and the certainty of a meal has been huge for our community,” MacPherson said.

If you would like to find out more about how to help, click here. Restaurants interested in participating can also click the link to see if they meet the criteria.

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Read more about coronavirus from ABC10

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