Five Causes the Seattle Restaurant and Food Community Are Supporting During the Protests

Over the past week, Seattle has joined the rest of the country in calling for justice over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him.

During this time, Seattle’s restaurant and food community have not stayed silent. Many have made their support for demonstrators public, but have also donated money to a variety of different causes aligned with social justice and advocacy for the black community. Here are a few organizations that they have highlighted so far.

Black Lives Matter Seattle

This is the local offshoot of the well-known national nonprofit, but the mission is the same — to elevate, empower, and liberate black people and other people of color through advocacy and action. One of the organization’s most recent announcements was the creation of the Seattle Freedom Fund: money collected will go to the immediate release of people participating in the current demonstrations. Multiple restaurants, including Rupee Bar and Art of the Table, have recently donated sales to the cause.

Got Green

The Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets group recently highlighted this organization, which attempts to address food insecurity for low-income families, develop a pipeline of leaders of color for the green economy, and advocate for climate justice for underrepresented communities, while also fighting against displacement.

Northwest Community Bail Fund

First Hill’s Little Neon Taco recently raised $11,000 for this cause, which provides cash bail for marginalized people charged with crimes who are unable to afford the cost and are incarcerated while awaiting court appearances in King and Snohomish Counties.

Black Visions Collective

Vegan ice cream chain Frankie and Jo’s listed this three-year-old Minnesota-based organization on its list of donations. The collective seeks to raise awareness around transformative justice, with a message of healing and empowering black leaders. Among the organization’s most recent campaigns is an effort to defund the Minneapolis Police Department.

Campaign Zero

Many Seattle restaurants, including Beacon Hill’s Musang, have circulated a widely-shared post that lists several racial justice organizations, and all should certainly be considered. Among them is this nonprofit, which takes a scientific approach to pressing issues of police violence, using in-depth research to identify effective policies to address the problems and provides technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns.

UPDATED, 8:37 a.m., June 3, 2020: The original version of this misspelled George Floyd’s last name in the intro at first mention. That has been corrected.