Katella Grill’s dining area was often bustling with customers pre-COVID-19, largely with its regular senior citizen diners. These days the restaurant, located in the city of Orange, and its staff are using the space to prepare and package donated meals for local food banks and distributors.

“It’s a no-brainer. We see what folks are going through, especially seniors,” said Ryan Learakos, who runs the popular eatery that his family has owned for more than 28 years. “We want to help.”

Since mid-March, the staff at Katella Grill has been preparing and packaging an average of 300 meals a day, sometimes up to 800 meals on weekends, to help feed the homeless, senior citizens and schoolchildren in need throughout Orange County.

It is part of a larger effort through Waste Not OC, a nonprofit that works to reduce food waste and end hunger in the community. Each day, local food production facilities like Katella Grill make meals that are delivered by volunteers, so no one goes hungry during the pandemic. Before COVID-19, Katella Grill regularly donated food to the nonprofit.

“Our business is dramatically down, about 90%. We decided early on that we could either mope around or decide that this is what we need to do to save our community,” said Mike Learakos, owner of Katella Grill and executive director of Waste Not OC. “Produce food and get it to who needs it, back to the community that has been there for us,”

Katella Grill’s donated meals are healthy and include chicken cacciatore, teriyaki chicken with broccoli or filet mignon with roasted potatoes. The hot meals are packaged and sealed so they can be frozen and delivered. Consumers then simply microwave or heat the packages in hot water when they are ready to be eaten.

Early on the staff at Katella Grill noticed a need for efficient food packaging and Mike reached out to Andre Saldivar who helps oversee Southern California Edison’s Foodservice Technology Center. The two have often worked together through various food industry efforts.

Saldivar located an energy-efficient Heat Seal hand wrapper that could help with the restaurant’s food packaging needs. The sealer was recently used in a study with Kroger & Food 4 Less to test the energy-efficient equipment.

“We try to help out where we can and we wanted to help support their efforts,” said Saldivar, who recently dropped off the food wrapper donation. “Mike said they weren’t able to seal the food fast enough. We want to support our customers and the greater good. That’s why we did it.”

In early March, SCE’s Foodservice Technology Center also donated a pizza oven, toaster oven and soft serve machine to the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation.

Saldivar recently reached out to the manufacturer of the food wrapper for additional assistance and soon received three more Heat Seal food wrappers from the company located in Ohio. Mike plans to donate the equipment to nonprofits assisting with donated food prep and delivery needs in the community.

“It was like Christmas morning,” he said after receiving the three new Heat Seal food wrappers.

SCE’s Foodservice Technology Center is currently hosting virtual workshops and seminars for small businesses and those in the food industry. For more information and to sign up, visit sce.com/ftc.