Former Bay Area restaurateur pivots to providing thousands of meals to people with food insecurity

By Sharon Chin

While many self-serve buffets have closed in the six years since the COVID-19 pandemic started, one businesswoman has revamped her popular restaurant into a nonprofit that feed thousands of people and families experiencing food insecurity.

One of Daisy Li’s favorite pasttimes growing up in Hong Kong was dining at the hotel buffet with her parents.

“When we get a 100 score for English or math, ask ‘What do you want to do?’ My pick is, ‘I want to eat at the buffet,'” Li recalled, adding that she would head straight to the dessert section.

When Li came to the Bay Area as an adult, she opened her own restaurant, Moonstar Buffet, an upscale seafood staple for 30 years in San Francisco and Daly City.

Of course, it had a whole dessert station, with her signature chocolate fountain.

But when the 2020 pandemic forced the buffet to close, Li pivoted to supply an average of 4,500 emergency meals a day for San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.

She already had the infrastructure – a 8,000 square foot kitchen in South San Francisco. Her staff were already cooking affordable, culturally-friendly meals for senior citizens for another part of her business called MoonChef.

In 2021, Daisy says it made sense to flip her business plan and form a nonprofit, Moonstar Charitable Organization. It cooks and packs up more than 2,000 meals a week for nonprofit partners that serve seniors, the unhoused, children and families in need.

“I think it gives me another life,” Li said. “It’s like I’m reborn again in a more meaningful way.”

East Palo Alto nonprofit Onyxx Village Connection gave away more than 30,000 Moonstar meals last year to feed people living on the streets.  

“Moonstar is our lifeline,” Onyxx Village co-founder Thandiwe Jennifer Lyons said. “Daisy is extremely angelic. I believe she was sent here to do more than cook.”

Ariel Ng, Moonstar’s executive director – and Li’s stepdaughter – would agree. She remembers scooping ice cream at Moonstar Buffet at age 14, and has now seen Li transform Moonstar’s mission.

“To have to be forced to close her doors, it was something she grieved a lot, and she still does, but something beautiful came out of it,” Ng said.

Li is not afraid to think out of the takeout box.

“She has all these ideas, and not only does she execute them in the most amazing, perfect way, she does it with her heart,” Ng said.

This fall, Li is planning on opening a food pantry in the building she’s rented next door to Moonstar Charitable’s kitchen. That’s her contribution to San Mateo County’s plan or emergency food relief in case of a disaster.

It’s clear food is her love language.

“I do it with my heart,” Li said. “By giving food, I’m really giving my love at the same time.”