Unsung Heroes: Nonprofit Pho for Seniors hopes to warm hearts while feeding Sacramento seniors
It’s a simple soup — broth, rice noodles, chicken, beef or tendon, a squeeze of lime juice — and arrives at the doorstep carrying a simple message in English and Vietnamese:
“This warm bowl of pho was made especially for you. Know that you are not alone.”
In the hands of Pho for Seniors, the steamy, savory Vietnamese rice noodle soup has become a bridge and a promise to elders in Sacramento and Elk Grove isolated by the months of stay-at-home orders and physical distancing needed to curb the coronavirus and COVID-19.
The volunteer group was spun out of the Little Saigon community nonprofit Community Partners Advocate of Little Saigon Sacramento.
Since starting their effort little more than five weeks ago, Nikki Nguyen and Mai Nguyen (no relation), vice president and executive director, respectively, Pho for Seniors has expanded from serving some 55 seniors to preparing and delivering meals to more than 180 seniors from a network of south county pho restaurants including Nikki Nguyen’s Elk Grove eatery.
They are Unsung Heroes — one of the many people and groups in the Sacramento area profiled by The Bee who have found ways large and small to help their neighbors gripped by the global pandemic.
For Nikki Nguyen and Mai Nguyen, putting together the effort was as quick as the fit was natural. Nikki owns a restaurant. Mai has ties with a local Vietnamese seniors association. The Little Saigon nonprofit, already focused on the underserved, pivoted during the pandemic to supply gloves and masks to frontline health workers. Then the two thought about how they could help seniors caught in the contagion and stay-at-home order.
“Our seniors need to have attention and this would have such an impact on seniors and our culture,” Nikki Nguyen said.
The pitch from the seniors association was simple: “Maybe you can start something with a bowl of pho?”
Their seniors wanted familiar food, a connection to home and family that other food delivery efforts — for all of their vital and well-meaning work — were missing.
“They said, ‘We need help.’ That inspired the program,” Nikki said. “It’s a small bowl of soup, but having that connection, it gives them that uplifting spirit.”
Nikki, Mai and dozens of volunteers served 55 seniors that first day, May 2, delivering soup prepared at Nikki’s restaurant, Pho Kim Anh, in Elk Grove.
And by helping seniors, the fledgling program also was helping restaurants whipsawed by the statewide shutdown.
“We wanted to help small businesses with that effort. It was a very natural connection with the restaurant owners. We had this relationship — they were so open. (They said) ‘Whatever you have, we’ll buy the rest.’” Mai Nguyen said.
Volunteers and restaurants were on board and local government leaders and business owners followed lending their names to the effort as sponsors.
Pho for Seniors launched with enough funds for the first week. Soon it had enough money for six.
For Mai and Nikki, the connection with the seniors their program served goes deeper than good works.
Nikki was born in California, Mai and her family arrived here with her family from Vietnam at an early age like so many other families at the end of the Vietnam War.
“Our parents came here and made sacrifices for us,” Nikki said. “Feeding our seniors, it’s like feeding our mom and dad. I think our passion has spread.”
With the pho project, “we’re looking at their emotional standpoint. They’re lonely. A lot of seniors are living by themselves,” Mai said. “When you prepare that (soup), it’s from the heart. When you make it, it’s out of love. The way they eat that soup — with that smile. It helps lifting up that spirit. … To be an immigrant — you already fear (social) distancing from your family, you lack the culture, you worry, ‘Am I going to die here by myself?’ So, when they see the younger generation doing this, they say our generation is helping them.”
It’s not just a bowl of pho, Nikki and Mai said.
“It’s a soup for the soul,” Nikki Nguyen said. “It shows you’re not alone. You matter. You matter to the community.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
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