LA restaurants unite for earthquake relief

Melody Xu, Tribune News Service

Standing outside of her casual Venezuelan restaurant in downtown LA, Kelly Montana clutched print-out photos of her parents as she visibly held back tears. This is the longest Montana has gone without contact with her parents — she speaks to them "all day, every day" even when they were thousands of miles away in La Guaira, Venezuela. But after back-to-back 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck 100 miles west of Caracas on June 24, she has been unable to reach them. Her response was to quickly turn her downtown LA restaurant into a drop-off site for donations.

Montana's parents, who were on vacation in La Guaira when the quakes happened, are among the more than 40,600 people still unaccounted for, according to a nongovernmental digital database where families can register missing loved ones. With an initial death toll of 600 that has since grown to an estimated 2,200 as of Wednesday, Montana responded to the news by turning her restaurant into a drop-off site for donations.

Montana opened Full Arepas last year as her own "little piece of Venezuela" — a personal homage to her home country, from thousands of miles away. On Tuesday morning, a dozen volunteers joined Montana on the street outside of her restaurant, packing and boxing an influx of supplies — from sanitary supplies to nonperishable foods — dropped off by passing vehicles.

"With the pass of the hour, my hope stays," Montana said. "I'm going to pray for a miracle." The supplies will be taken to Miami and then Venezuela by Olarte Transport, said volunteer Andrea Casanova, 28, whose grandfather was in Venezuela when the earthquakes struck. The elder survived after traveling down 13 flights of stairs with an injured leg, Casanova said.

"I think we're all still in shock," Casanova said. "(I've) definitely been going home and crying after hours." Los Angeles is home to 6,770 Venezuelans, according to the Los Angeles Almanac. Like Montana and Casanova, many have family members and friends in Venezuela who are gravely injured, missing or dead.

In Long Beach, Nova Bakery opened its doors over the weekend, operating as a donation center accepting sanitation items, first aid supplies and nonperishable food to be transported by Olarte. "We have hope it'll reach the people who have evacuated so it can provide some help for them, for the young children left without a family, without a home," said owner Pierina Barboza, who is from Merida, a city that sits high in the Andes Mountains in northwestern Venezuela. "And what they really need is everyone united, all for the same cause."

Though the restaurant wrapped up its collections earlier this week, Alviany Dominguez, 53, still stopped by Wednesday morning to donate canned food. His family hails from Zulia, the most populous state in Venezuela. Dominguez has lived in the US since 2024. "The damage is huge, the need for help is there," Dominguez said. "Even the smallest bits of help we can give will contribute to everything needed to the population left alive."

Barboza said she plans to continue posting on social media to share resources and organize future aid efforts, even if her efforts are a "grain of sand" compared with what her home country may need in order to overcome the tragedy.

"Without a doubt, we'll be that center of help for those who need it," Barboza said. "We will be there." In Pasadena, Amara Cafe owner Amara Barroeta committed to donating 70% of Tuesday's profits to Global Giving, a nonprofit organization delivering emergency food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter and lifesaving aid in Venezuela. The most popular order throughout the fundraiser was the arepa pabellón, one of the most emblematic arepas in Venezuelan cuisine. In this dish, the traditional South American flatbread is typically filled with cheese, black beans, sweet plantain and shredded beef.

"Most of the Venezuelans that would come, I guess they wanted to order items that felt close to their memories," Barroeta said. The restaurant was not simply feeding its customers, Barroeta said, but providing a space for the local Venezuelan community to grieve and find support. "I feel people needed a hug," Barroeta said. "We all needed to talk. There's something very surreal that we Venezuelans feel, and not many people understand." As of Wednesday morning, the donation site outside of Full Arepas was still receiving a significant amount of goods — and Montana's parents remain missing. International rescue teams are actively searching collapsed buildings for more survivors in La Guaira, even as the mission shifts toward recovery.

"I have hope today that I'm gonna find them," Montana said. "I don't know in what condition, but I'm going to find them."