Haitian Pizza Joint Feeds 1,000 a Day, for Free

A restaurant on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince is taking up the slack left by still-incomplete relief efforts and feeding 1,000 hungry and homeless Haitians a day—for free. Before the earthquake, Muncheez was a pizza joint too expensive for most people in the area. But after the quake, its owner realized all his supplies would soon spoil. “So instead of losing the food,” he tells NPR, “we said let's cook the food and give it away.”

The story of neighborly generosity in the face of disaster continues. “Two days after, we were running out of diesel, running out of gas, running out of food,” the owner continues. But others “started to bring food to us. And we are doing that since.” To supplement the home-cooked meals of spaghetti and rice and beans, an aid group is using the restaurant as a distribution point for dry goods. Muncheez has also set up a Facebook page to keep donations rolling in. (More Haiti earthquake stories.)