Beloved Chatsworth Deli Saved By Interest-Free Loan

CHATSWORTH, CA — March was not a good month for Pasquale Roberto. The longtime owner of San Carlo Deli, a specialty Italian deli, market, and bakery, thought COVID-19 might take his business — which had been in his family for three generations — and his life.

Roberto tested positive on March 22, around the same time he had to close his business, and he was too ill to go through all the paperwork necessary to apply for small business loans that might save it. Suddenly, two Chatsworth staples — Roberto and his business — that had been fixtures of the community for three decades and had survived everything from the 1992 riots to the ’94 Northridge earthquake — were in jeopardy.

No more. Roberto is recovering, and on Wednesday, Los Angeles Councilmember John Lee presented visited his store to present him with a $17,000, interest-free loan. This was the first loan given through the CD12 Small Business Angel Fund, a partnership between Lee and nonprofit The Change Reaction, run and partially by philanthropy and property owners/developers Greg and Jodi Perlman.

In April, Lee and The Change Reaction announced two programs to help struggling individuals and businesses in District 12: “A Helping Hand” grocery assistance program for individuals struggling with food insecurity as a result of the pandemic, and the CD12 Small Business Angel Fund, which provides interest-free loans and expert support to struggling businesses.

In addition to an interest-free loan, representatives from the Small Angel Fund helped Roberto renegotiate his lease.

Since the program, launched, over a dozen businesses in District 12 have been awarded a total of approximately $200,000, according to Grace Yao, a spokesperson for Lee.

"There's no denying that residents are struggling as a result of the measures we've taken," Lee said. "We have an obligation to do everything we can to not only help our residents get their very basic needs met, but to also support the business community so that our economy can rebound when we are ready to lift the stay at home order."

A previous version of this article stated that Roberto's landlord Marc Magid had offered him free months rent. That is incorrect. Patch regrets the error.