Jersey Shore Magazine

Jersey shore PROFILE JOE LEONE'S ITALIAN SPECIALTIES, continued from page 46 Left: Chefs cooking for aid workers after Superstorm Sandy. Courtesy of Joe Leone's Below: John Hilla at work after the storm. Joe Leone's provided thousands of meals to first responders and emergency service workers from the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the National Guard, JCP&L, food banks, and churches. 48 Courtesy of Joe Leone's j e r s e y s h o r e • F a l l / H o l i d a y 2 0 1 3 In the days before, as the hurricane alerts became more alarming, his wife, Jennifer, had called to tell him he should get home. He, his twelveyear-old son, Joey, and ten-year-old daughter, Bella, had been visiting Molfetta, the homeland of their ancestors in Italy, and L'Aquila for the groundbreaking of the shelter for victims of domestic violence he had helped to fund. Introna tried to leave earlier, but the flights to the East Coast were booked solid as traveler's scrambled to beat the storm. Then, on Monday, fifteen minutes before he and his children were to return as originally intended, their flight was cancelled. After that, he lost cell phone service for three days. Introna, a man of action, helplessly watched dramatic storm developments on CNN International in Rome six time zones away. After hearing a British broadcaster say that the expected storm surge would penetrate as far as three miles inland and thus reach their home, Bella became frightened that their home and family were in peril. Introna reassured her by saying he knew her Uncle John—John Hilla, his friend, brother-in-law, and business partner—would take care of his family and their enterprise. Once they landed, Introna and his kids traveled homeward on the Turnpike and Parkway; again he was struck by how nightmarishly dark everything was. Power outages were still extensive. When he arrived at his darkened Brielle home hours later, Jennifer greeted him at the door with a flashlight. "I was never so happy to be home," Introna said, as his family was joined together again. While Introna and his kids were in airport limbo, John Hilla had been in Point Pleasant Beach trying to preserve the food of Joe Leone's Italian Specialties. He had brought in blocks of ice to seven powerless walkin refrigerators and sealed the doors with duct tape for greater insulation. The insurance company had told him to document the food they would lose, and Hilla went into action. "First I checked with our staff," recalled Hilla, "and asked, 'Do you need food?' When I was sure they were okay, I rallied all the people I could to help with the tasks at hand, which included distributing food." From there it was gut work: they provided food to first responders and emergency services just up the street, working during daylight and cooking with gas. They also fed service workers from the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the National Guard, and JCP&L, and supplied food banks and churches. "We had such a rapport with emergency services and food banks," Hilla said. "They would ask us to make sandwiches, and then we supplied specifics they requested like romaine, pasta, coffee, or something else. Everyone—including our cashiers, cleaning people, and administrative staff—pitched in and became a team." "We started off using all the perishables," said Introna, "then we realized people were in survival mode and began to provide from our preserved foods and canned goods." In the first days after the hurricane, when nearly everyone—even the emergency workers—were in a state of shock from the scope of damage and disruption of life, Introna delivered

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