PengPeng: Feeding Veterans, Feeding Our Community

“Peng” is a Lao word meaning “to lovingly care for”.

PengPeng is a free meals initiative of SapSap (“delicious-delicious” in Lao), a culinary startup founded by Chef Alex Hanesakda. SapSap serves Southeast-Asian food inspired by the American Dream out of our restaurant at 2343 Mead Street, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. 

SapSap is driven by the refugee experience and healing the trauma of war with food.

Chef Alex was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after the Vietnam War forced his parents to flee their homeland of Laos. He grew up in Burlington, Wisconsin, seeing his father struggle with PTSD incurred after he fought in support of US troops during the war. He watched his parents put their heart and soul into lovingly preparing food for anyone who was hungry. Today, those values of his family inspire SapSap to continue the tradition of service and connecting people through food. 

Gifts to this PengPeng fund, which are currently not tax-deductible, will pay for meals SapSap provides to hungry people in the neighborhood surrounding our restaurant, and to veterans who visit us. 

Any veteran of the US military can receive one menu item of their choice per visit to SapSap Mead Street, upon displaying their proof of service. 

In 2021, SapSap distributed over $10,000 worth of delicious-delicious food to veterans and hungry people in our community. With your support, we can feed even more of our neighbors and service members in 2022!