Zane’s Italian Bistro is helping those navigating loss this Mother’s Day by offering free meals to those mourning a mom, wife or child.

Zane Anderson spent the week leading up to Mother’s Day keeping his mother’s spirit alive by feeding people whose losses make the day a little extra challenging.

“Food evokes a lot of feelings,” said Anderson as his voice broke. “When we’re happy, we eat, when we’re sad, we eat, when we celebrate, we eat, when we mourn, we eat.”

On Monday, Anderson, owner of Zane’s Italian Bistro in South Denver, leveraged his large social media following to give back to the community that helped uplift him through his own loss by offering a free meal to families in the Denver area who had lost a mom, wife or child.

Anderson knew what it felt like to spend a Mother’s Day without his mom, which is part of what compelled him to make the callout.

“I lost my mom six years ago in kind of a tragic accident, and so she was just gone, then my grandma and a couple other people right afterward, and I was broken for a little while,” Anderson said. “I shut people out, I wasn’t taking care of myself mentally and physically.”

His mother, Gayle Novak spent her life not just raising six children but also working heavily in philanthropy, raising millions of dollars for local charity organizations around Denver. She was known for her charity work, chairing events such as “Saturday Night Alive” for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, events for Cancer League of Colorado, and many more, as well as winning Miss Senior Colorado 2018.

Novak had been an integral part of starting up his small business, Zane’s Italian Bistro. When it originally opened on Bellview and Olster in the heart of the Denver Tech Center, she would go around to local businesses and hotels, handing out fliers and doing PR work.

“The guests loved my mom, the kids loved my mom. My mom would hang out with kids and play with pizza dough and make things for them, and then we would go bake it for them,” Anderson says. “It was beautiful, and we still do that today.”

Anderson eventually took over ownership of 100% of the business and moved locations about 4 years ago. He took much of his longtime, regular customer base, many of whom had supported Anderson through the loss of his own mother, with him to his new location in South Denver.

The Italian Bistro became a bit of a home for Anderson.

In this place, he could return to rekindle old memories of his mom, the flowers she would plant in front of the building, and the smells of her favorite dishes, all of which became the embodiment of the memory of his mom.

The restaurant was more than just a place of work or a place to eat food, but a community where Anderson could go to be with his mom when he missed her the most.

“This has been one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and it’s brought a lot of happiness, and it’s only been a couple of days,” says Anderson, “and it’s brought a lot of sadness.”

The response from community members has been a little shock, a little disbelief, and a little more than just gratitude.

By feeding members of his community a free meal, Anderson says it’s his way of making sure those who have forgotten to take care of themselves have a place to feel loved and cared for on a day when we miss the person who cared for us the most.

Anderson’s callout has sparked more than just a positive public response, garnering a couple of dozen free meals as of Thursday afternoon, but has also helped reshape how he sees his own philanthropic role in the community.

“You can never go wrong with giving,” Anderson says. “You’ll never go wrong with going out of your way and giving to somebody in need and helping other people.”