My Favorite 2019 Food-Focused Charities

December 11, 2019 Admin 0 Comments

From the Editor: Everything you missed in food news last week

This post originally appeared on December 7, 2019, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

Though I’m not religious, I admire the principle of tithing — taking a portion (a tenth!) of your take-home income and giving it to the community. Conveniently, in the church that often means giving the money to ... the church. But there are many faiths that encourage taking that tithe and giving it to worthy charities. I have a personal percentage I’ve tried to hit since my teenage waitressing days but I often forget about it until the very end of the year.

Now is a good time to take stock in charitable donations, whether that’s time or money, for 2019. And since last week’s newsletter was focused on my favorite food-related gifts to buy for the holidays, recommending some food-related charitable foundations could be a good counter-balance.

My go-to food charities include The Food Bank For New York City, Hot Bread Kitchen, La Cocina, Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, and Restaurant Opportunities Centers. I would love to learn about yours. If you want to send me your favorites to amanda@eater.com, I’ll make sure to list them in this space in the coming weeks.

On Eater

Rey Lopez

• Intel: Celeb D.C. chef Mike Isabella turned up at a Florida restaurant after retreating from all of his D.C. properties following a sexual harassment suit and bankruptcy; Chicago’s minimum wage will go up to $15 and its “sub-minimum” will go to $8.60 in 2021; the people behind Here’s Looking at You in LA opened a new all-day cafe; Erik Bruner-Yang’s ’80s- and ’90s-themed pasta place in D.C. opened this week; Top Chef finalist Gregory Gourdet is opening his own restaurant in Portland; LA institution the Apple Pan now has cool merch; Tony Mantuano is leaving Spiaggia after founding it 35 years ago; the chefs behind New York restaurant Frenchette will open a restaurant in Rockefeller Center; Michelin launched a huge partnership with TripAdvisor; a big new development with a number of restaurants will open across from NYC mega-project Hudson Yards in 2020; Montreal is giving landmark/historic status to a bunch of restaurant signs; LA’s San Gabriel Valley has a new must-order dish; Aaron Franklin and Tyson Cole will open a location of their Asian-inflected steakhouse, Loro, in Houston; Andy Ricker is working on an exciting-sounding charcoal-centric restaurant next month; and bored social media managers of food accounts tweeted some regrettable things this week.
• Review: Ryan Sutton checks in on two new NYC caviar and Champagne destinations, Air’s and The Riddler.
• Was fascinating to me to learn how influential (and untrustworthy) TripAdvisor restaurant reviews are.
• In which Daniel Geneen goes behind-the-scenes to see how iconic condiment Tabasco is made.
• Food brands love a serif.
• I did not know drinks served in bags are super common around the world, but they are!

This Week on the Podcast

We talk about the phenomenon of holiday-themed bars and interview the founder of Miracle, who licenses out his pop-up concept to dozens of bars around America. Then we get into the biggest stories of the week.

Off Eater

• The corporate slack culture at hip luggage company Away is terrifying and toxic. [The Verge]
• This interactive exploration of the New York subway map is incredibly cool. [NYT]
• I am obsessed with this super-curvy, otherworldly residence in Russia. [Curbed]
• The banana boulevardier is a thing and I would like to drink it. [Punch]