Irwin restaurant delivering meals to seniors

Caroline Leppert got lunch delivered this week to the North Huntingdon residence where she has been living with her friend for the past month under a self-imposed quarantine to avoid getting sick with covid-19.

Leppert and her friend were getting a meal of ready-to-heat pasta with a meatball, courtesy of Ernest Furno and his wife, Angela Furno, owners of Mr. Mike’s restaurant in Irwin. The price of the meal delivered by their daughters, Bella, 13, and Josephina, 10, was perfect — free.

“We want to give back to the community. It’s our way of giving back in these trying times for everybody,” said Furno, who works for North Huntingdon’s public works department, while his wife runs the restaurant. The couple have owned the restaurant for 13 years.

They started about four weeks ago as Gov. Wolf’s shutdown order of non-life-sustaining businesses and the ban on eating in a restaurant took hold throughout the state.

On a typical day, they deliver 20 to 25 meals to residents, mostly senior citizens in the Norwin area and have called the restaurant that morning to order a meal, Furno said.

Without the customers to come in for lunch and dinner and have a drink with their meals or just to socialize, Angela Furno said they are relying on their take-out business to provide some revenue.

“It’s been very difficult. Everybody in my industry (restaurant) has no money,” but still have to pay utilities, rent and taxes, employees, Furno said.

“You don’t want to get behind (with the Internal Revenue Service). They’ll penalize you,” despite being hit by the coronavirus shutdown, she added.

These days, they have a little extra help because their three school-age daughters, Jacklyn Caputo, a senior at Norwin High School, as well as Bella and Josephina, are getting their instruction online, rather than in the classroom.

To avoid getting too close to the vulnerable senior citizens who are getting the meals, Furno said they typically place the meal by the front door, knock on the door or ring the doorbell, then wait for the resident to pick up their food.

As for how Leppert and her friend are doing?

“We just laugh a lot and have a good time. That’s all you can do. We go for a drive — pick up meds,” Leppert said.