A New York pizzeria owner has turned an upsetting encounter outside his restaurant into a simple message of kindness for people struggling to afford food. Daniel Romano, owner of D’Romano’s Pizza in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, noticed an elderly woman taking half a pizza from his restaurant’s rubbish bin. Instead of ignoring her, Romano approached her, removed the discarded slice and gave her a fresh one. The woman began crying, and Romano reassured her before she ate. The incident later prompted him to put a handwritten note in his restaurant window asking hungry people to come inside and tell him they needed food rather than searching through the rubbish.
The moment New York pizzeria owner saw a woman at his rubbish bin
Romano noticed the woman taking discarded pizza from the bin outside his restaurant and decided to intervene. According to the Bronx Times, he took the discarded slice away and gave her a fresh piece of pizza instead. The woman became emotional and started crying. Romano then told her, “Don’t cry. Eat.” The encounter stayed with him and eventually led him to put up a handwritten message for anyone else who might be hungry. The note, displayed in the restaurant window, was directed at people who might otherwise search through the rubbish for food. It read: “To the people eating out of the garbage, I have more love for you than you think. Please tell me if you’re hungry, I will give you a slice of pizza.” Rather than asking people to take discarded food, the message invited them to come inside and tell Romano directly that they were hungry.
Romano has spent 45 years in the pizza business…