Solidarity in action at Frontline Foods

Frontline Foods teams providing meals to local volunteers and communities in need.

Over the past few weeks, Frontline Foods has put our collective commitment to Solidarity to work.

Across the country, as we’re witnessing our communities being torn by injustice and inequality, the onus is on all of us as citizens to do better, to listen and learn, to assess, and ultimately to act. Our local chapters have rallied behind our Solidarity mission to support Black-owned businesses and provide nourishing meals to impacted communities and rebuilders. Here’s a sample of some of the activities taking place in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Twin Cities.

Los Angeles, California

• The Los Angeles team took swift action delivering pizzas from Delicious Pizza to volunteers participating in community rebuilding efforts in LA’s Fairfax District and Santa Monica.
• In partnership with Carbon 38, three Black-owned restaurants — Hilltop Coffee, South LA Cafe, and My Two Cents — delivered meals to two women’s facilities — the Downtown Women’s Center and Dignity Health LA Center for Women’s Health — which both serve primarily minority communities.
• LA joined forces with The Conversation Truck, which travels to protests in order to amplify Black voices, at Say Their Names: A Civic Engagement Event. Our restaurant partners, Hilltop and My Two Cents, prepared snacks and drinks for those peacefully fighting for justice.
• On Juneteenth, the Los Angeles chapter partnered with Trap Heals and Bye COVID to provide meals from Dulan’s on Crenshaw, a Black-owned restaurant in Los Angeles, for a community event at Compton College for a day of free COVID testing.

Chicago, Illinois

• The Chicago team has delivered over 8,000 meals from local Black-owned restaurant partners (Justice of the Pies, Turkey Chop, and Soul & Smoke) to impacted communities in the city’s South and West Side — areas that are predominantly Black American neighborhoods.
• The Chicago team serves meals weekly at six schools in communities where grocery stores have remained closed and families rely on the public school lunches. The schools are: The Montessori School of Englewood, Chicago Lawn at St. Rita Parish, Austin Neighborhood at Circle Union Ministries, Parkside Elementary, Burke Elementary School, and Garfield Park Field House.
• In honor of Juneteenth, the Chicago team partnered with chef Quentin Love of Turkey Chop to provide 1,000 meals in support of social change.

New York, New York

• The New York team partnered with Open Your Lobby to provide meals to theaters that opened their doors to protestors last weekend. Meals were provided by Black-owned restaurants Millie Peartree and Melba’s along with Katz’s Deli.
• In the coming weeks, the New York team will be supporting St. Nicholas houses, a part of the New York City Housing Authority. Sixty percent of their residents identify as African-American.
• New York is also partnering with Lifecamp and Girls for Gender Equity to provide meals and groceries to families in need.
• In celebration of Juneteenth, New York partnered with The Layout to provide meals at the Fort Greene community event where all came together to be free.

Twin Cities, Minnesota

• The Twin Cities team worked with Afro Deli, a Black and immigrant-owned restaurant, to provide meals to volunteers helping rebuild neighborhoods that sustained damage in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
• The Twin Cities team has delivered 2,000 meals (and counting!) from restaurant partners (Afro Deli, Barbette, Fresco’s, The Naughty Greek, Hot Indian Foods, Taqueria Las Cuatro Milpas, and Thigh Times) to various locations for donation drive volunteers and community members affected by the destruction of grocery stores and other neighborhood shops.

In addition to the Juneteenth activities mentioned above, other Frontline Foods chapters across the country organized and activated to support their communities. The Phoenix chapter partnered with March for our Ancestors to provide free meals to their community; the Las Vegas chapter brought meals and ice cream from two Black-owned restaurants, Soul Food Cafe Express and Drip Drop Ice Cream, to low-income housing facilities; and the New Jersey chapter partnered with event organizers Erroll Worrell Mays & Anthony Green, along with BurgerIM of Clark, NJ, to offer food during Jersey City’s Juneteenth celebration.

We all have the ability to reach out, rebuild and inspire change in a time of crisis, and at Frontline Foods, we know we’re stronger together. To learn more about what we’re doing at Frontline Foods, visit frontlinefoods.org.