This Mutual Aid Group Is Delivering Groceries to Families Impacted by ICE Raids
In Los Angeles, Gather For Good is helping get food to folks too afraid to leave their homes.
Food is more than what’s on the plate. This is Equal Portions, a series by editor-at-large Shane Mitchell, investigating bigger issues and activism in the food world, and how a few good eggs are working to make it better for everyone.
“I was locked in my tortillería because of an ICE raid at a supermarket across the street,” said Sherry Mandell, a founder of Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project. That day, she had orders to fill. The heritage grains she grows wind up in tortillas supplied to greater Los Angeles restaurants and farmers markets. “We kept working and stayed calm, but one of my people—a tough, 250-pound tortillero—was upset, not sure if he’d get home,” she said. “And my guy who does the stone milling was too afraid to come in to work. Lives are being upended.” Mandell’s solution? She activated Gather For Good, a rapid-response nonprofit she created in 2017 with pastry chef Steph Chen of Sugarbear Bakes.
Think of them as L.A.’s dynamic duo of culinary mutual aid. “We’ve created this platform so we can turn it on and off as needed,” Mandell said. “Someone has 500 pounds of [canned] tuna and 200 loaves of bread? Let’s go. At the end of the day, we can sleep better instead of wringing our hands.”
Last July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operatives wearing tactical gear marched through MacArthur Park, sparking widespread objections of racial profiling as well as pushback from civil liberties advocates and local politicians, including the mayor of Los Angeles. (Because of its dense immigrant population, the surrounding community is informally considered an Ellis Island of the West Coast.) At the time, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino was quoted saying: “Better get used to us now, because this is going to be normal very soon…We will go anywhere, any time we want in Los Angeles.” Since that takeover of a public park, agents have detained more than 5,000 people. And that’s just Angelenos.
Between their networks, Mandell and Chen are able to tap a cadre of Southern California farmers, purveyors, bakers, and chefs who answer their urgent calls to feed people or establish safe havens. “This helps my heart,” said Chen. “A lot of people are sitting at home doomscrolling, super sad and distressed, but being able to have an action plan and make stuff happen? That takes the doom and gloom away.” The pair’s annual fundraisers include Pies for Justice, a charity pie sale, and Make Choice a Piece of Cake, a bake-off for reproductive rights featuring contributions from some of the city’s top pastry chefs. “Come for the cake, stay for the activism,” Chen said. And now, Gather For Good is also delivering groceries.
Some individuals have gone into hiding rather than risk being swept up in an immigration raid and separated from their families. (More than four million families in the United States currently have mixed citizenship status which may jeopardize household stability if undocumented members are detained or deported.) Many express feeling unsafe shopping for groceries, punching a clock, speaking their first language in public, appearing in a courthouse, picking up kids at school, or picnicking in a popular playground lest “la migra,” as enforcement agents are known in Spanish-speaking communities, descend in a show of force.
That’s why Mandell and Chen have been supporting almost 600 affected families since this past summer; soliciting staples from Gather For Good volunteers—rice, beans, dairy, tortillas, produce, pastries—then delivering nourishing packages via trusted sources twice a week. This “double-blind” delivery system adds an extra layer of anonymity for recipients. “We partnered with Ketchum-Downtown YMCA and Dignity Health at California Hospital Medical Center to get food to the families directly.” Chen said. “Grocery staples are what’s helping them get through the day right now.”
On the tail end of wildfire recovery, this new disruption to daily life has inflamed emotions in a city that has endured so much already. “Just being downtown, you feel violated,” said Mandell, who has implemented additional safeguards for her tortillería staff. “They are going after a certain population, based on how people look and where they live and work,” she added. “We are so proud of our cultural melting pot. When one group suffers, everyone suffers.”
In September, the Supreme Court ruled that government agents in the Los Angeles area can make immigration-related stops based on criteria such as race and ethnicity. Shortly after, agent Bovino posted on X an image of Border Patrol officers standing below the Hollywood sign. All faces were blurred except his, and another agent wearing a white cowboy hat. The post was clearly intended to send a message. Then, on October 15, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency over the raids in order to provide assistance to families fearful of leaving their homes, although that relief may take months to be delivered. Meanwhile, mutual-aid groups like Gather For Good have continued their support; every bag of groceries helps—especially as the holidays arrive.
“Stick to food.” That’s the taunt flung at food journalists or restaurant workers who protest or respond to public policies. It’s especially raw when masked, armed federal agents are coming for our neighbors working to put food on their own tables. Between raids at chicken processing and snack bar manufacturing plants, and laborers targeted while milking cows, serving waffles, or riding an e-bike for a meal delivery app, food is, in fact, the common denominator that connects everyone. Fortunately, we have folks like Mandell and Chen—seeking nourishing donations and resolute volunteers—who show us there are many ways of gathering for good.
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