Submitted photoMom & Dad's staff bring a takeout order to a waiting customer.

THOMASVILLE — A member of the third generation of the Mom & Dad’s Italian Restaurant family hopes restaurant servers’ efforts will reach those in need before they have to ask.

If someone is hungry, they will be fed, said Anthony Pistelli, whose grandparents, the late Tita and Osvaldo Pistelli, opened the business in January 1977.

Tip Out Thomasville participants — Mom & Dad’s servers and other employees — are pooling tips nightly and dividing the money equally among “front-of-house” staff and putting aside 5 percent of tip income with a goal of helping Thomasville families suffering most in the coronavirus crisis.

The restaurant will match Tip Out Thomasville monetary contributions, among other helpful gestures.

Tip Out Thomasville’s mission statement states that the first priority of restaurant owner Danilo Pistelli and his wife, Anna, Anthony Pistelli’s parents, is to keep employees on the job, to ensure employees have food and to keep their pay rate as close to normal as possible.

“This is hard times for all of us,” said Danilo Pistelli, whose wife and daughter Daniella  also work at the Smith Avenue family business. “We cannot thank the people in Thomasville enough for supporting us all these years.”

Employee Chip Sanders, Tip Out Thomasville co-founder, wants to give back to the community. He sees a potential food shortage and wants to distribute food.

According to the mission statement, employees “feel a duty to pay their sacrifice forward to our community.”

Guests buying to-go meals and using Mom & Dad’s meal delivery are asked to tip a minimum of 20 percent.

The group’s first initiative will be to make weekly small donations of personal protection equipment or food supplies to health-care workers and first responders, along with a large food drive in neighborhoods experiencing greater than normal levels of hardship.

“We’ve made our living serving others, and it’s going to take more than a pandemic to stop us from doing that to the best of our abilities,” according to the mission statement.

Acknowledging hard times ahead, Danilo Pistelli said, “I have my wine and food to keep me happy.”