Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ‘Restaurants Deliver: Home Meals for Seniors’ program starts today, and hopes to help ailing restaurants and vulnerable seniors

Hospital Ship USNS Mercy Arrives at the Port of Los Angeles — California governor Gavin Newsom has announced a new statewide program that will pay local restaurants to provide hot meals to senior citizens.

California governor Gavin Newsom has announced a new statewide program that will pay local restaurants to provide hot meals to senior citizens. The Restaurants Deliver: Home Meals for Seniors program hopes to keep California’s seniors — who are especially vulnerable to the novel coronavirus — home, and will reimburse local restaurants for delivering three meals per day, according to Los Angeles Times.

Participating establishments will be reimbursed up to $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and $28 for dinner, providing much needed revenue to ailing restaurants, whose dining rooms have been shuttered for weeks as a result of ongoing social distancing restrictions. ABC-7 reports that the funds will mostly come from the state and Federal Emergency Management Agency, while local governments will pay a smaller share.

Newsom noted that Restaurant Deliver is for seniors ineligible for other assistance programs. The program is targeted at high-risk seniors — those who have been contracted the virus or been directly exposed to it, who have compromised immune systems, or whose finances are below 600 percent of federal poverty guidelines. Newsom estimates that 1.2 million of California’s 5.7 million seniors are socially isolated, according to LAist.

Participating restaurants will be selected by local governments, and their meals must adhere to nutritional guidelines. Ideally, suggested Newsom, ingredients would be locally sourced as well. Details are scarce on how the program will be managed.

Seventy year old chef Michael Hutchings has spent nearly fifty years in Santa Barbara pleasing everyone with his gourmet cuisine but recently announced he and his pastry chef wife, Christine Dahl, will retire and relocate to Charleston, South Carolina. The renowned Santa Barbara chef has appeared on The Inn Crowd on KEYT-TV for five years, taping more than 100 episodes, and owned Michael’s Waterside Restaurant.

“We have purchased a lovely home on a lagoon full of birds and other wildlife which reminds me of the Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara where my restaurant was located,” says Michael. He is looking forward to spending time with two of his five children living in the Charleston area, and enjoying his six grandchildren who reside in the charming southern city.

The couple plan to be active in the food community of Charleston, since son-in-law Clint Wood manages a country club and has already planned a Julia Child tribute dinner, an introduction to Michael’s friendship with the late Montecito chef, whose TV show Dinner at Julia’s he worked and appeared on. Chef Michael believes spending time with the grandchildren and exploring the East Coast will keep him busy. “Proximity to Europe means we will be off to Spain, France, and Italy on cultural and culinary journeys.”

His long and successful career includes work in Paris, Monaco, and London, where he was a chef at Le Roche. Michael ran the food operations at the Santa Barbara Polo Club and was Chef de Cuisine at the Olive Mill Bistro. His food preparation and presentation graced innumerable fund raising tables for charities in Santa Barbara, including Girls Inc., the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, Camerata Pacifica, The Music Academy of the West, Arthritis Foundation Central Coast and the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission.

“Santa Barbara has been a wonderful place to raise a family, build a career and enjoy the unique lifestyle on the Central Coast. Cooking in paradise was fueled by an abundance of great products from local farms and the ocean.” He said he will miss the Santa Barbara community.

I know that I am among a huge group of Santa Barbara 'foodies' who will miss Michael Hutchings and his fabulous cuisine so much and I wish he and his wife happiness in their new home in Charleston. It is my hope to plan a travel writing journey through that area and perhaps include a stop in Charleston so I might do a follow-up story on chef Michael's southern comfort life and new culinary adventures.

New Program Will Pay California Restaurants to Feed Seniors During Stay-at-Home Order