NEW YORK (AP) — Lidia Bastianich He grew up in a small town in Italy, where his neighbors were like relatives. When the children came home from school and the mother was out, we went to the neighborhood to get snacks. If someone had a problem between siblings, they went to the neighbor’s house.
The Emmy Award-winning television host, author, and restaurateur remembers her grandmother making a big pot of lunch and sending it to her young neighbor, Lydia, to serve her elderly blind neighbor with a glass of wine.
that sense of community Of course it’s not unique to Italy. “It exists in small-scale settings in America, but we need to grow it more,” Bastianich says.
She hopes to foster a sense of togetherness in the spotlight with her 14th TV special. “Lydia celebrates America, the land of her neighbors.” The show will premiere on PBS on November 25 and stream on PBS.org.
“This is my appreciation for America. I don’t think there’s a better place in the world than the United States, but for some reason America has been maligned,” she says. “What I do know is that there are a lot of good Americans in the middle of America.”
Where does Bastianich go?
Lidia Bastianich is the host of “Lydia Celebrates America: Neighbors of Neighbors,” which will premiere on PBS on November 25th. (Joni Schranz/PBS via AP)
Bastianich travels to Areas affected by wildfires Outside Los Angeles, there are Pay How You Can cafes in Denver, a Japanese American community center in Portland, Oregon, and a first-of-its-kind free food market in San Francisco. Every time we stop, there are people reaching out for help.
“That connection makes you feel better and more human, and it restores your motivation to move forward in life,” she says.
The hour-long special begins in Altadena, California, a city affected by recent wildfires. Bastianich is volunteering to prepare 175 five-course meals to be delivered to disaster victims. One of the volunteers is a person who is living in his car because the fire left him homeless.
“I was shaking. I just wanted to hug him,” she recalled. “I know he needed it. I know he was alone in the car, but he still found something within himself to give. It takes fortitude. It takes character.”
She also meets a self-taught chef Kiki Ruff Located in Porter County, Indiana. Ruff hosts a viral TikTok series that uses recipes from the Great Depression, recession, and wartime to help families struggling with food insecurity stock up on groceries.
In Denver, Bastianich visits the restaurant SAME (short for So All May Eat). There, customers can offer money, produce, or volunteer their time in exchange for a meal.
“If you pay for dinner or lunch, it’s all subsidized. But if you have a garden and you grow certain things and have extra, you can bring in vegetables and fruit and you’ll get a meal,” she says.
“Or you can go to work, or you can stand back and start packing vegetables and things like that. But it’s more than just getting a meal. You can interact with other people and donate.”
Another spot she visits is a community hub in Portland for Japanese American seniors that offers food, tai chi, and connections with seniors and family.
“Do something for your neighbor”
Bastianich, whose latest book is “Lidia’s Art of Pasta: An Italian Cookbook” with her daughter Tanya Bastianich-Manuali, has also benefited from community support. She was born in 1947 in Istria, an Italian colony ceded to Yugoslavia after World War II. She spent the first few years of her life under communist rule before fleeing with her family across the border to Italy. There they lived in a refugee camp for two years until aid organizations brought them to New York in 1958.
Mr. Bastianich’s final stop was San Francisco, home of the nation’s first legally supported free grocery market, serving thousands of residents. Shoppers have full shelves and are free to choose what they want.
“It wasn’t just a handout or a box of food. These people came and felt good,” Bastianich says. “They had the integrity to go into the store and choose what they were going to eat, instead of just accepting what was given to them.”
What Bastianich discovered during his travels is that a small act of kindness for someone in your community can do wonders not only for that person, but for you as well.
“You don’t have to give them a big check or anything like that. Do something for your neighbor,” she says. “That connection makes you feel good. It makes you feel more human. And it restores your desire to live positively.”
