For lunch, a canteen for the needy, for a local dinner for everyone: the first Caritas restaurant in Florence

A new, very special address opens its doors in Florence: the Le Torri Center of Villa Vogel, managed by the Fondazione Solidarietà Caritas of Florence – which at lunchtime is already one of the city’s canteens for the needy – is transformed in the evening ( from Thursday to Sunday, from 7.30 pm) in a restaurant open to all. Pizzas, burgers, first courses and street food, prepared by chef Gabriele Andreoni together with the historic chef of the Foundation Carlo Mazzola, who will be supported, in the dining room and in the kitchen, by volunteers and people who benefit from the services of the Foundation’s structures: minors from the centers reception, students of hotel schools (who with their teachers already collaborate with the city canteens), pensioners, girls who are following the civil service and the year of social volunteering at Caritas, young people with disabilities. Furthermore, the idea is to entrust the preparation of bread and focaccia, once the green light has been obtained from the judicial authority, to a former baker who is a beneficiary of the alternative measures to detention, welcomed into the Il Samaritano house of the Foundation.
“It’s a dream come true, in the footsteps of Danilo Cubattoli and Ghita Vogel who donated the structure to us – he comments Vincenzo Lucchetti, president of the Caritas Solidarity Foundation of Florence – we are happy that the first evening was a success: it was an emotion both for the diners and for the people in the kitchen and in the dining room”.