HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Life isn’t always sweet and it’s what you do that’ll get you through the toughest times.
That’s a lesson that Huong Pham learned from her Vietnamese family.
"The first time we were locked down in March, we had a lot of supplies left," said Huong Pham, who co-owns Good Vibes restaurant in Huntington Beach, formerly known as Bodhi Tree Vegan Cafe. "We came up with the idea to be able to give back to our community because people couldn’t work."
Pham had a lot of food left over when she closed her restaurant at the start of the pandemic. Instead of letting the food go to waste, she and her family partnered with their friends to whip up meals for people in need. They created a movement called Moving Forward Together.
“We didn’t actually anticipate the need that we saw,” said Pham.
The family met up every week at her brother’s restaurant kitchen to make ethnic meals like cháo, which is Vietnamese rice porridge, for older adults who lived alone or don’t have access to transportation and people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. They’ve fed more than 70,000 people.
While they helped their community, Pham was rebranding her restaurant of 15 years, formerly called Bodhi Tree Vegan Cafe, to a restaurant called Good Vibes. This was all happening without a constant stream of revenue coming in which created stacks of bills and back-rent.
“We almost didn’t open because they were going to take the store back," said Pham.
According to the California Restaurant Association, one-third of restaurants permanently closed as of June of this year. That’s about 25,000 eating and drinking establishments.
Pham says her family wanted to keep cooking for folks who were having a tough time even though they were struggling themselves.
Pham, her mother Huynh Kim Oanh, their family, friends and volunteers are now meeting every other Sunday to cook and pack hundreds of meals for their movement Moving Forward Together.
“We make items that are easy to eat, very digestible and not heavy. We focus on really good traditional dishes mainly because my mom is cooking it and she’s really an amazing cook,” said Pham.
The restaurant owner didn’t know the pandemic would last this long and would put her at risk of losing her business, but the year and a half has opened Pham’s eyes to people who needed help and that her family was in the position to spread good vibes.
To learn more about her new restaurant, visit here.