Community

Morgan Hill-based Del Monaco Foods, a privately held food manufacturing company, was acquired July 26 by Kettle Cuisine, artisan producer of refrigerated and frozen premium quality, all natural soups, according to an announcement made by the new owners.

All Santa Clara County Library District libraries, including the Morgan Hill library, will be closed for building and technical upgrades on Wednesday, Aug. 3 and Thursday, Aug. 4, according to library officials.

Cal Fire Capt. Herb Alpers was in quite a bind leading into Friday’s inaugural Champions for Charity first responders cook-off at the 2016 Gilroy Garlic Festival.

In a collaborative effort to bring awareness to the growing epidemic of Type 2 diabetes among at-risk youth, the American Diabetes Association partnered with Morgan Hill Unified School District and Mount Madonna YMCA to provide a week-long summer camp at Barrett Elementary School.

Local attorney Juan Lopez was named as one of nine recipients of the 2016 California Peace Award for the 30th Assembly District. He will be recognized for the honor during the Aug. 2 National Night Out in downtown Morgan Hill.

It was during the fall of 1992 when Gene Sakahara and Gene Bozzo were called in at the last minute to replace Rudy Melone, Garlic Festival co-founder, for a cooking demonstration at the Nob Hill Foods Hecker Pass Family Adventure Park.A year later, when they made their way to the cooking stage for the first time as SakaBozzo, the comedic culinary duo were a hit with the crowd. This Friday will mark the 25th appearance at the festival for these Gilroy residents.But the sad part is it’s also going to be their final show.“We thought that we had a good run at it,” Sakahara said. “We want to go off while we’re still welcomed and then give other people a chance at it.”The show might be done with after this week, however Sakahara, 68, and Bozzo, 75, plan to be part of the garlic festival in a more low key situation.“The festival is in both of our bloods,” Bozzo said. “We believe in the festival. We believe what good it does for the community and we’re just moving over to another assignment. That’s all.”This year the two former garlic festival presidents are adding their grandsons to the show. Bozzo will have his grandson Dominic, 8, accompany him, while Sakahara will bring up his grandsons Bode, 10, and Kiden Gonzales, 9.“That’ll be fun because we’ve always tried to portray cooking for the family,” Sakahara said. “That’s what we’re about, is family. And we really enjoy the meals together.”Sakahara and Bozzo are known to mix it up year after year with new recipes that include garlic and this year will be no different. Sakahara will make Mendocino crab cakes with Bode and Kiden. Bozzo will make southern Italian red sauce with pork and Dominic will make a family recipe known as Carmela’s Meatballs.Bozzo said the inspiration for SakaBozzo came from someone he watched at the festival, but it wasn’t quite the vision he wanted to model the show after.“He cooked the same thing every year,” Bozzo said “People kind of got tired of that. We never did that, every year was a different recipe.”The SakaBozzo show was also all about cooking for the family and over the years the Gilroy Garlic Festival became a big family to them.Bozzo said they both have strong beliefs in cooking with family and friends. Nowadays, he said, people are always on the go and don’t have time for a family meal.What started as a friendly favor to substitute for an ill friend quickly turned into a success for the SakaBozzo show. They have been asked to make a special appearance at the 40th annual garlic fest in 2018 and they agreed without hesitation.“We’ll still be involved but not on the cook-off stage every year,” Sakahara said “But it’ll be good to just relax a little bit too.”

In response to the July 4 accident that left two children injured and increasing community scrutiny over the safety of downtown crosswalks, Morgan Hill Police are taking a “zero tolerance” approach to traffic violations in downtown.

Many local families welcomed a new member into their homes July 23 by participating in the “Clear the Shelters” annual free pet adoption event, conducted at shelters nationwide and held locally at the Santa Clara County Animal Shelter in San Martin.The animal shelter staff’s mantra for the event was, “Help us clear the shelter and take home a new friend,” and many locals did just that, giving a forever home to the sheltered cats and dogs.Nearly 20,000 pets found their forever homes in 2015 with 400 animal shelters across the country partnering with NBC owned television stations and the Telemundo Station Group, according to cleartheshelters.com.The local participating shelter, located at 12370 Murphy Ave., is open seven days a week, from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.More information can be found at sccountypets.org or by calling (408) 686-3900.

In its continued effort to honor local philanthropy and volunteerism, the Morgan Hill Community Foundation is now accepting applications for its 11th annual community-wide celebration event.

A hot spell cranking up as the week progresses combined with smoke in the air from a more than 10,000-acre wildfire burning in Monterey County has made for unhealthy air quality in South County, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Drew Peterson.