Hermer has now opened the kitchens at her other restaurants Chez Mia and Olivetta in West Hollywood to cook warm meals — including bread, salad and pasta — for families, firefighters, shelters and hospital workers.

“When you don’t know if your house is standing and if you don’t know where your kids are gonna go to school or you don’t know what you’re gonna do, lean into the things that you do know — and I know how to cook dinner,” she says. “So I thought, ‘OK, let’s cook dinner for a lot of people because we can. And we have a team who can do it.”

Hermer says she’s raised over $50,000, which will provide meals for displaced families and frontline workers. Operating on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the program first launched during the COVID pandemic, and anyone anywhere in the world can donate by texting “DINNER” to 707070.

On Hermer’s Instagram, displaced families in LA who need food can comment “family” for a free meal; folks can nominate a displaced family who needs food by commenting “nominate family” and tagging the individual; and drivers who can pick up food from the restaurants and deliver it to families can comment “driver.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to say, ‘By the way, I want food or I need a meal.’ We’re not programmed to ask for what we need,” she says. “So if you know about a family who needs a meal or someone who could use it, you can nominate them and we’ll get in touch.”

The program, which Hermer says successfully fed thousands of people during the pandemic, also relies on volunteers to drive the food to those in need.

“What we learned in the pandemic is community is a lot more than your post office and your local coffee shop and the bricks and mortar of community. This is what community is. It’s togetherness and connecting,” she says.

Hermer says her children’s school is gone, the homes of her friends are no longer standing and she isn’t sure if she has a home to return to.

But for now, Hermer, who is staying at a hotel with her children, is focused on giving back.

“I am alive. I’m surviving. It comes in waves,” she says. “Last night, I didn’t know what to do. I was sobbing. I had no answers. The devastation is enormous and not singular to me. It is shared by the masses and probably the world at this point … and then sometimes I think, ‘Oh my God, we can do this. There’s hope. We can band together. We are community. Let’s fix this. Let’s help.”

EDITOR’S NOTE (Jan. 12, 2025 at 12:33 p.m. ET): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Hermer’s restaurant The Draycott burned down, but we later found out it is still standing.