SEATTLE — The I Stand With Immigrants initiative celebrates its ninth annual tour with a stop in Seattle this weekend.
As part of The Food That Made Us tour, the initiative has teamed up with celebrated chefs – including Joanne Chang, Tom Colicchio, Byron Gomez, Christine Ha and Hawa Hassan – to craft original recipes for some of their favorite dishes, inspired by their own immigrant heritage.
The five-city U.S. tour also features local immigrant-owned food trucks like Seattle’s Thai-U-Up, which serves spring rolls from a husband-and-wife-run truck.
Daniel Leon-Lewis, the initiative’s creative director, said his team is thrilled to be back on the road after a few years of hiatus during the pandemic.
“We are honoring the creativity, cultural expression and community-building power of food through The Food That Made Us Tour,” Leon-Lewis said.
Zaira Garcia said being on the road again and meeting immigrants and their families is a powerful perspective.
“We’re coming up on a decade of hosting this, and we’re really out here celebrating the many contributions that immigrants make to our country,” Garcia said. “Whether that’s through culture, through food, through music – you can really look in so many directions to see the value of immigrants and immigration to the United States.”
The Food That Made Us Tour will be in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District on Saturday and will serve up free food, “I stand with immigrants” shirts and tote bags at Hing Hay Park, 423 Maynard Ave. S. The event will run from noon to 6 p.m.