Forced to Close His Diner’s Doors, Owner Gives His Stock to Homeless
Richard Spinelli was forced out of business recently, but he nonetheless turned his misfortune into a positive gesture for the community.
Spinelli, 45, operator of Tavola Calda Diner inside the J.J. Newberry store on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, was notified a while back that he was being evicted to make room for an expansion by the store. He fought the eviction, but the case was thrown out of court because the store’s parent company is in the midst of a bankruptcy filing.
Determined to have something good result from his misfortune, Spinelli last weekend opened the diner’s doors and gave away the entire perishable food supply to homeless people.
“There was a lot of food I was going to deal with, and the homeless are ever present in Santa Monica,” he said. “I couldn’t think of a way to distribute it in a more timely way.”
Nearly 100 people stopped by the diner to take food for themselves or their families. Some stayed to help Spinelli box and move restaurant equipment.
“Some of them came to my aid and they were also thankful, which made me feel good,” he said. “It was a very moving experience to turn this negative situation into something positive.”
Spinelli said he hopes to find a new location for the diner, and in the meantime he is working as a caterer.
“It is a blow to have your business dissolved, but I want to get beyond that now,” he said.
John Geranios has been named chairman of the business department at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles.
Geranios holds degrees from UC Berkeley, Georgetown University and USC. He has taught at Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Northridge.
He lives in the Hollywood Hills.
Joyce Eisenberg Keefer has contributed $1.8 million for the establishment of a breast cancer center at the John Wayne Cancer Institute of St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.
The new center, to be named the Joyce Eisenberg Keefer Breast Center, is scheduled to open in January. She was honored by the Institute last month during a reception at Jimmy’s restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Culver City resident Scott Sanders was one of 350 high school students from around the country participating in the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington. The gathering was sponsored by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council.
He is a senior at Culver City High School.
The Los Angeles chapter of the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America presented its Woman of the Year award to Gladys MacNair, a senior vice president at National Medical Enterprises in Santa Monica.
MacNair, a longtime supporter of the foundation, will be honored tonight at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Several Westside high school students have been named semifinalists by the 1993 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Santa Monica High School students are Alex Aravanis, Matthew Flaming, Peter Koo, Nersi Nikakhtar and Erik Wile. Marymount High School student Carissa Feeney was also named. Approximately 15,000 high school students are chosen for this distinction from across the nation. They will now compete for merit scholarships, which will be awarded next spring.
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