CHICAGO (WLS) — At a moment when Latino families across Chicago are facing intensified hardship due to immigration enforcement, a culinary collaboration aims to help those in crisis.
On Jan. 19, the Ramova Theater will be filled with community and cuisine for Todos Ponen: Una Noche De Pueblos Y Platillos. This citywide fundraising event will gather more than 40 restaurants, hundreds of attendees, and partners in several industries, to address food insecurity, wage loss, and the instability reshaping immigrant households across Chicago. The hope is to raise $100,000 to support 125 families with enough groceries for at least a month.
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Todos Ponen, launched in 2020 by Chef Diana Dávila and the Mi Tocaya team, emerged from a moment when immigrant families were navigating COVID with almost no institutional support. What began as emergency food relief quickly revealed a larger truth. Now, as Chicago’s Latino communities face deportations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, lost income, and pervasive fear, the instability is no longer temporary. Families are struggling to meet basic needs, including the ability to buy food safely.
Marcos Carbajal, owner of Carnitas Uruapan, also witnessed the impact of ICE activity across Little Village, Gage Park, and Pilsen, neighborhoods where his restaurants help sustain the local economy by hiring from the community. The instability families now face is showing up among his staff, in his dining rooms, and throughout the communities he serves. That frontline perspective made him a key collaborator and connector in shaping the initiative, and he joined Dávila as a co-host of Todos Ponen.
Dávila and Carbajal visited ABC7 Chicago to spread the word about this effort to help fill the gap. You can donate or purchase tickets to attend Todos Ponen here.
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