SAN DIEGO _ In Principal Andy Trakas' office at Albert Einstein Academies, two pictures hang on a back wall. One is a shot from the 1964 classic "Zorba the Greek." The other, an intoxicating seascape of the country's island gem Santorini.
As a kid, Trakas washed pots and pans at Troy's Greek Restaurant _ his family's business tucked along Mission Gorge. The son of Greek immigrants now oversees the brightly appointed charter school built from the dusty bones of the old Bay View Medical Center in Grant Hill.
Each weekday since the coronavirus health crisis shut down schools and isolated families, Trakas and colleagues have handed out free meals _ 700 on Thursday alone. About half of AEA's students qualify for free or reduced lunches, with 55.2% considered socioeconomically disadvantaged in 2018-19.
Trakas slipped on a pair of gloves Thursday, pulled a mask over his face and aided colleagues handing meals and supplies through windows as cars streamed through a roadway behind the school.
It does not matter if a family has a child at the school.
"No questions asked," he said.
More than a quarter of a century ago, a run as a record-setting kicker at San Diego State became forever stained when Trakas missed key kicks against USC and then-No. 3 Miami _ a pair of the most painful non-victories in program history.
That was the uncomfortable then. The meals, reassuring smiles and invaluable daily connections represent a far more meaningful now.
"They remember highlights and lowlights _ nothing in the middle," Trakas, 48, said of his turbulent road as a kicker. "That's the nature of the beast. To tell you the truth, those experiences helped form the person and the man I am now."
