NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Lidia Bastianich grew up in a small town in Italy where the neighbors were like extended family. If the children came home from school and their mother was not at home, they would go to the neighbors for lunch. If someone had problems with a brother or sister, he went next door.
The Emmy Award-winning television host, author and restaurateur remembers how her grandmother prepared an extra pot for dinner and sent young Lydia next door with it to feed her blind elderly neighbor, along with a glass of wine.
What sense of community this is certainly not specific to Italy. “It exists in small situations in America, but we need to encourage it even more,” Bastianich says.
She hopes to raise awareness and promote unity in her 14th television special. “Lydia Celebrates America: A Nation of Neighbors” premiering November 25 on PBS and streaming on PBS.org.
“This is my way of really thanking America. I think there is no better place in the world than the United States of America, and somehow it has been maligned,” she says. “What I know is that there are a lot of good Americans out there in the middle of America.”
Bastianich goes to areas affected by forest fires outside Los Angeles, a pay cafe in Denver, a Japanese American community center in Portland, Oregon, and a first-of-its-kind free food market in San Francisco. At every stop people reach out for help.
“That connection makes you feel good, it makes you feel more human. And it gives you that same desire to go on with your life,” she says.
The hour-long special will air in Altadena, California, which has been affected by recent wildfires. Bastianich joins volunteers preparing 175 five-course meals that are delivered to victims. One of the volunteers lives in his car because the fire made him homeless.
“I was shaking. I just needed to hug him,” she recalls. “I know he needed it. I know he was alone in his car, and yet he found the strength to give. This requires fortitude. It takes character.”
She also meets a self-taught chef. Kiki Ruff in Porter County, Indiana. Ruff hosts a viral TikTok series that helps food-insecure families stock up on groceries using recipes from the Depression, recession and wartime.
In Denver, Bastianich visits the restaurant SAME, which stands for So All May Eat, where guests can offer money, get creative or donate their time in exchange for food.
“You can pay for dinner or lunch and that will go towards subsidizing the whole thing. But if you have a garden and you grow certain foods and you have a surplus, you can bring vegetables or fruit and get food,” she says.
“Or you can work, you can go and start picking vegetables or whatever. But it doesn't just give you food. It forces you to interact with other people and give donations.”
Another place she visits is the Portland Community Center for Older Japanese Americans, which offers food, tai chi and fellowship for seniors and families.
Bastianich, whose latest book, “Lidia's Art of Pasta: An Italian Cookbook,” with her daughter Tanya Bastianich-Manuali, has received help from the community herself. She was born in 1947 in Istria, an Italian territory that became part of Yugoslavia after World War II. She spent the first years of her life under communist rule, then fled with her family across the border to Italy. There they lived in a refugee camp for two years, until a humanitarian organization helped them move to New York in 1958.
Bastianich's latest stop is San Francisco, home to the nation's first legally mandated free food market that serves thousands of residents. Shoppers there find the shelves full and can freely choose what they want.
“It wasn't just a giveaway or a box of food. These people came and felt good,” Bastianich says. “They approached honestly and chose what they were going to eat rather than just accepting what was given to them.”
During her travels, Bastianich has discovered that small gestures of kindness towards someone in your community can do wonders not only for them, but for you as well.
“You don't have to give big checks or anything like that. Do something for your neighbor,” she says. “That connection makes you feel good. It makes you feel more human. And it kind of gives you back the desire to continue to live in a positive way.”
