Putting food on the table

Through his kitchen at Silvertron Cafe, Crestline resident Marco Morosini has been helping homeless shelters provide food for a few years. When he asked for help covering the costs, the community around his Forest Park neighborhood immediately stepped up.

In 2015, a Leadership Birmingham project inspired Morosini to see if the rest of the Birmingham community was willing to commit in a similar way. That led to the creation of Heart to Table.

Heart to Table just completed its first winter in operation. Through partnerships with the United Way, area donors and 10 local restaurants, Heart to Table provided hundreds of meals for Birmingham’s homeless population every time Boutwell Auditorium opened its warming station.

Three Mountain Brook restaurants — La Paz, Basil Gourmet Pizza and Chez Lulu — were all part of Heart to Table this year. Morosini’s own bank, the Crestline branch of First Commercial Bank, also donated money toward the project.

“It’s a great program. Nobody leaves hungry,” said Basil owner Cole Harvey. “Really for any restaurant I think it would be an easy and worthy cause… everyone should be doing more.”

Ellen Prince, the manager at La Paz, agreed that Heart to Table made the process simple for her restaurant to share their good fortune and reach “a whole different level of helping our fellow person.”

“It really to me was a no-brainer,” Prince said.

On Morosini’s side of the equation, he had to find local restaurants both capable and willing to cook for at least 200 people on less than a day’s notice. He said some restaurants were concerned that their kitchens were too small to cook on that scale. While Morosini said a small kitchen shouldn’t limit restaurants’ ability to participate, he understands that he’s asking something challenging of them.

“When you have a machine that works 100 miles per hour, I need to be able to stop the machine and cook for 200 people in a short period of time,” Morosini said.

He also had to find donors to raise about $5,000, so that participating restaurants could be reimbursed for food costs of participation. Morosini said that he was able to raise the money in a matter of weeks.

Even better, so far no restaurants have asked to be repaid for their work.

“I’m trying to bring in a sense of community,” Morosini said.

A different participating restaurant cooked meals each time the Boutwell station was open this winter. In total, Morosini said they served more than 1,500 meals in their first season.

The restaurants are asked to cook meals that are nutritious, filling and easy to eat. Morosini said he wants Heart to Table to make food “as well as you and I would like to eat.” Working with this program has made him realize how fortunate he is to do something as simple as walk in a restaurant and order, knowing he’s able to pay.

“This may be the only meal that these people can eat,” Morosini said. “They are people. We don’t need to cut them off from society.”

Prince said that 24-hour notice was plenty of time for La Paz to cook when they provided meals in late January. As the staff prepared burritos and tacos for their regular customers that day, they also cooked chicken, rice and vegetables for Heart to Table on the side. Prince said the meals were served at Boutwell in about an hour, and both of the La Paz employees who delivered them thanked her for the experience.

“It opens your eyes to what’s going on in our city,” Prince said. “[And] it makes you feel good.”

In exchange for their generosity, Morosini works to publicize participating restaurants to customers who want to support Heart to Table’s work.

“I think it’s great that locally owned restaurants get exposure to a market they didn’t know they had before,” Morosini said.

However, Prince said La Paz isn’t participating to bring in new diners.

“It’s about feeding hungry people,” Prince said.

Right now, Heart to Table is only at work during the winter. Morosini said the program came about so quickly that he wants to make sure it’s sustainable before growing. With enough donors and restaurants, he said he’d like to grow the program, either to offer food more frequently throughout the year or to serve food in more places.

“I would love to see more restaurants involved,” Prince said.

She and Harvey said they would like to continue with Heart to Table next winter, and perhaps even further into the future.

“We’ll do it as long as the program is in place,” Harvey said.

Heart to Table Participating Restaurants

► Silvertron Cafe

► Vecchia Pizzeria & Mercato

► Basil Gourmet Pizza & Wine Bar 

► Ted’s Restaurant

► La Paz Restaurant & Catering 

► Chez Lulu

► Rojo Birmingham 

► The Abbey 

► Cantina Tortilla Grill