Las Vegas restaurant partner donates food to essential workers

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals, families and businesses in Las Vegas are stepping up to offer relief to people in the community who are in need of food, services and support. Here are stories about people who are leading with kindness and proving the community is #VegasStrong.

Restaurant donates meals to hospitals, essential workers

In the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, Cody Tomboli, managing partner for Bar Code Burger, had excitedly planned a night of drink specials, whiskey orders and party buses to safely transport customers to that night’s Golden Knights game.

Instead, he spent the night drinking shots by himself at the empty bar, which closed in accordance with Gov. Sisolak’s lockdown orders.

Aiming to make the situation better, he started reaching out on social media to see where he could donate food from the restaurant. Since then, he has made 12 deliveries to local hospitals and essential businesses.

“I put out a video asking for help, if anybody had friends or contacts,” Tomboli said. “The Learning Center cut their teachers but has almost the same amount of students because essential workers need day care. So we brought over 10 burgers for them.”

Tomboli also has donated hamburger meals to workers at local hospitals including Valley Hospital Medical Center and Centennial Hospital and the Metropolitan Police Department’s convention center area command.

He reached out to a friend, Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, who has matched Tomboli’s donations.

On Tuesday, he will partner with NFL linebacker and Las Vegas native Brandon Marshall to donate 80 meals to a rehabilitation center.

While he is still fulfilling curbside orders, Tomboli said business is down about 90 percent.

“We’re just truly blessed by God that we’re able to remain open,” he said. “We feel the need to pay it forward. We love our community and are roots are here.”

Pediped owner donates 1,000 masks to homeless quarantine complex

Angela Edgeworth, a Henderson woman who owns the children’s footwear company Pediped, donated 1,000 masks to the Cashman Isolation-Quarantine Complex on behalf of her company and employees Friday.

Edgeworth said that her company was able to produce fabric face masks in their factory in China. She started including a free fabric mask in orders for customers.

“Since the factory is in China, we were able to secure some masks that were suitable for use in hospital-type environments,” Edgeworth said. “I wanted to donate 1,000 to an organization who could really use them.”

A friend told Edgeworth about the need for masks for frontline personnel and volunteers at the homeless quarantine complex.

Edgeworth said the Mayor’s Fund for Las Vegas LIFE helped coordinate the donation.

“I have two teen daughters and we have worked with the homeless community in the past through (Project) Homeless Connect,” Edgeworth said. “We’ve been a part of that for the past five years. It’s a really important part of the Las Vegas community that needs to be addressed.”

Contact Janna Karel at jkarel@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jannainprogress on Twitter.