When COVID hit the city, Jody Scaravella, the owner of Staten Island’s Enoteca Maria restaurant, decided his chefs — a rotating posse of grandmothers with roots from around the world — were too vulnerable to keep working. He closed up shop. But some of the restaurant’s nonnas –– Italian for “grandmothers” –– couldn’t quite keep away over the past 17 months.

They served meals to essential workers on weekends. They stopped by one at a time on different days last year and made vats of sauces from their home countries that Enoteca Maria sold in mason jars online and in person to stay afloat.