The Goodness of America
Community Comes to Aid of Caring Business Owners
Husband and wife Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi are the proud owners of the Austin, Texas, restaurant Nixta Taqueria, the pilot location for the area’s first “community fridge.” Edgar and Sara regularly replenished the fridge with fresh meals and “hydration packs” during heatwaves, and garnered a reputation for their generosity. When the community learned that the restaurant’s power was disconnected due to an electricity-use issue, they stepped in to help.
When Edgar and Sara were forced to shut down operations in August 2023, they worried they could not help people in the community who had come to rely on them. They had managed to stay afloat when Covid struck just five months after they opened, and had continued to keep the community fridge stocked. One year after that, the Texas freeze shut down power at Nixta for two weeks, but the couple continued to feed thousands of people using propane tanks to power their store.
Edgar and Sara knew the electrical issue in August was going to take months to correct and cost money they simply did not have, so they decided to create a GoFundMe page with an $80,000 goal.
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