A Mexican restaurant in Fresno burned. Here’s how people can help the business, employees
Two Fresno organizations are donating $40,000 to a restaurant destroyed by fire — and challenging the public to match their donations.
Zamoras Carnitas Mexican Restaurant, at 850 N. Fresno St. just north of Highway 180, caught fire in the early morning hours of Nov. 29.
The fire destroyed the kitchen and several sections of the family-owned restaurant, according to Julian Gomez, son of the owners.
When firefighters turned off power to the building to fight the fire, the restaurant lost all its perishable food.
“This unfortunate event has happened at one of the worst times of the year, with Christmas and other holidays so close,” Gomez said. “The reconstruction time frame is unknown but expected to be several months, putting our employees out of work indefinitely for the time being.”
That same day, Gomez launched a GoFundMe online fundraiser seeking $40,000. More than two weeks later, it had raised just $6,346.
On Thursday, Neighborhood Industries and Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation jointly announced that they had each donated $20,000 to the restaurant, owned by Humberto and Gaby Gomez.
The foundation’s portion is a grant that will be used toward a food truck the family can operate.
The money donated by Neighborhood Industries (which operates the Neighborhood Thrift shop and vintage store Blkmktplc in the Tower District, among other operations) will go toward fire recovery efforts.
Neighborhood Industries lost its recycling warehouse to fire in June 2021 and received an outpouring of support.
“When I heard that Zamoras had experienced a similar event, I immediately knew that we needed to extend that same support and generosity that we had received to them,” said Neighborhood Industries CEO Anthony “AP” Armour in a news release.
He and the foundation’s CEO, Dora Westerlund, are challenging the public to do more to help the longtime business.
They’re asking people to donate to the business’s GoFundMe page at bit.ly/3BILzcj. The campaign will fund the reconstruction of the business and make up for workers’ lost wages.
The staff approaching the holidays with their livelihoods up in the air was not how the Gomez family wanted to end the year.
“My heart is for our staff, the people who really make Zamoras a special place; seeing the business recover is a process and is important, but our staff making it through the holidays is really our biggest concern,” the family said in the news release Thursday.
In addition, the two organizations will host a posada celebration, a Mexican Christmas festival, for the staff Monday. There will be food and gifts for the children.
This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
