Although 16th Empire restaurant in Scottsbluff has been among the local businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, that hasn’t stopped owner Ralph Paez and his staff from providing free lunches to nearly 300 people a week. He said they’ll continue to make and deliver meals to people who can’t afford to buy food because ‘one of the keys to getting through this is to be kind to one another and to lend a helping hand’
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – When school officials in the area announced in mid-March that they would be closing schools because of the COVID-19 outbreak, 16th Empire restaurant owner Ralph Paez immediately started thinking about what he and 16th Empire could do to help kids still get food on a daily basis.
“When I saw the announcement, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. What’s going to happen to all these kids who depend on the school system to eat? For some of them, that might be the only way they get to eat,” Paez said. “I thought, ‘We need to do something to help.”
After brainstorming for a bit, Paez came up with a plan – he and his family and the staff at the restaurant could make lunches for kids who needed food.
“I told my staff, ‘We’re going to start making lunches, and we’re going to do it for as long as my bank account allows us to do it’,” Paez said. “I said, ‘We’re going to try to feed as many kids as we can.’”
Although his original plan was to help feed kids, Paez and his family and staff soon began making lunches for a wide range of people in the Scottsbluff/Gering area, including elderly people, who needed food.
“The world is already a tough place for some people, so to add hunger on top of it isn’t right or fair for these people who can’t afford food,” Paez said. “I know it’s a problem throughout the world. I wish I could save the world. I can’t save the whole world, but I can at least try to help as many people locally as I can. The reality is that many people right here in our community are struggling – even to have enough food. I feel we need to do whatever we can to help.”
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