[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]s it possible for a lone taquero in Whittier to do a better job at serving the community during a pandemic crisis than the local and federal governments combined?
According to Masataco’s customers who have recently grown to include the FBI, at least eight different police departments, and medical personnel, it is looking like it. Their excellent vegan tacos aren’t the only thing on this neighborhood taqueria’s menu these days. Recently, their menu has grown to include many of the increasingly scarce life necessities in the age of COVID-19, but the numbers he's selling are nothing short of staggering and impressive.
Upwards of 1.2 million face masks, 40,000 pounds of rice, 25,000 pounds of pinto beans, 10,000 pounds of lentils, and 25,000 pounds of Peruvian beans...in just three days.
In Los Angeles, where beans, rice, and tortillas are as essential and scarce as masks and toilet paper, this taco shop in Whittier is hustling to provide ridiculous volumes of them faster than stock dumped by politicians at the first sight of coronavirus. dFolks and first responders from all over southern California, even other states, are driving to Masataco for literal tons of affordable food and millions of masks sold at cost instead of waiting for the upper ranks of government to restock.