Chicago restaurateur joins mission to feed America's hungry

CHICAGO (AP) — Before coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick’s trips to this city’s South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago.

Now Mallick is a South Side regular — and a popular one. He regularly arrives bearing food for the hungry from his Indian restaurant several miles to the north, in the city’s downtown.

“Thank you, sugar, for the meals. They’re so delicious!” one woman recently shouted to Mallick outside a South Side YWCA. He recorded her response on his phone to share it with his staff.

“God bless you!” she added, raising her arms for emphasis.

Mallick has personally delivered thousands of meals cooked and packed by his staff –- among them, chickpea curry and tandoori chicken with roasted cottage cheese, sweet corn, peas and rice. Volunteers from neighborhood organizations then take them to children, retirees and the multitudes who’ve been laid off or sick during the pandemic.

“We all need to help each other,” Mallick says. “That’s the best way to get through a crisis.”

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