Bronx Times · https://www.bxtimes.com/at-dromanos-pizza-no-one-leaves-hungry/
A Bronx pizza man fed the woman eating from his trash, then posted an invitation to the hungry. An old letter asks what kind words are worth without lunch.
If a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
James 2:15-16
Daniel Romano made pizza for 45 years before opening his own shop this year, D'Romano's on East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. In late August he saw an elderly woman pull a discarded slice from his garbage can. He took her by the hand, sat her down inside, and brought her a fresh slice from the oven. She started crying. He told her, "Don't cry. Eat."
Then came the sign, handwritten in marker and taped to the window: "To the people eating out of my garbage, I have more love for you than you think. Please come in and tell me you're hungry. I will forever give you a slice and fresh water to drink." News 12 The Bronx ran the story on August 28. Millions of views later, people from Texas, Arkansas, Alaska and Hawaii were calling to pay for slices. Romano's review: "I didn't even know Alaska had a phone."
The brush-off James quotes was the polite religious send-off of his day, a warm blessing handed to somebody who needed lunch. His test for it is almost rude in its simplicity: after the kind words, check whether anyone ate.
Romano passed the test before he ever heard the question.
His mother Carmella had a saying: a desperate person makes better decisions on a full stomach than on an empty one. That is a social theory, a pastoral strategy, and a business plan, and it fits on a napkin. City health rules make him toss prepared food every four hours anyway; his response: "Why not give it away to people that are hungry?" As for staying open, he's here, paying his bills and his taxes. An old proverb keeps a different set of books.
Proverbs 19:17He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.
By that accounting, Romano is extending the safest credit in New York. The sign in the window says the offer runs forever.