Feed the Fight helps local restaurants, health care workers

After two years, Del Mar native Benjamin Brown was finally ready to launch a self-guided food tour company that allowed diners to sample the best offerings at each restaurant they visited.

“It was met with incredible demand,” said Brown, who has interviewed a number of celebrity chefs and attended many food festivals during a 10-year career as a food critic. “But a week later, all the restaurants shut down due to the COVID crisis. As an entrepreneur, this is a soul-crushing situation.”

He decided to pivot toward helping local restaurants, which have been forced to lay off workers and subsist on takeout and delivery, as well as health care workers on the front lines of treating those who are infected.

“I looked at the opportunity as a way to do some good in the world, where so much bad was happening,” said Brown, who started an initiative called Feed the Fight.

Feed the Fight accepts contributions from the local community, and the funds are used to purchase meals from local restaurants. Those meals are donated to local health care workers. A number of deliveries have already been made to Scripps, Rady Children’s Hospital and Thornton Hospital.

Brown said he hopes Feed the Fight will be a “temporary support system” for local restaurants as they try to persevere through the COVID-19 crisis. Restaurants and other public venues have had to close or restrict their operations based on public health orders for people to stay home except for grocery shopping, exercise and other essential needs.

“This is my favorite place in the world,” Brown said, referring to his hometown, “and there are so many local restaurants that I grew up going to that are just struggling for business.”

Brown added that after a large order he placed at a Del Mar restaurant, the chef and owner said that he would be able to put an employee back to work. Some of the restaurants that Feed the Fight has worked with are Americana Restaurant, Del Mar Pizza, Encinitas Ale House and Raul’s Mexican Food.

“This crisis is showing how much our community and communities across the world value their restaurants,” Brown said.

Many cities are promoting the restaurants that are still open for takeout and delivery to help them generate some business until they can reopen for full service when the public health orders are lifted.

“That’s why Feed the Fight is here, to support these businesses through this tough time,” he said.

For more information, visit gotastepro.com/pages/feed-the-fight