Restaurants rise to the wildfire challenge - but the job’s not finished. With Cafe De Leche’s Matthew Schodorf, Fiorelli Pizza’s Liz Gutierrez, and Inclusive Action for the City’s Rudy Espinoza.

The Palisades and Eaton fires have been raging for more than a week now. Restaurants and food vendors have played a huge role in the relief efforts, stepping up in a big way to feed first responders and evacuees. 

Father Sal and I discuss a couple of excellent articles on restaurants in the midst of the wildfires, and we speak with three people who’ve experienced the fires from different perspectives:

First is Matthew Schodorf, the co-owner of Cafe De Leche whose Altadena location was completely destroyed by the Eaton fire. We talk to Matt about how they’re navigating the situation and what we can do to help. 

Second is Liz Gutierrez of Fiorelli Pizza in Venice, one of the first operations to spring into action to help first responders and evacuees. We talk to Liz about what they’re doing and how we the public can support restaurants as they carry out this important work. 

Finally, we’re joined by Inclusive Action for the City’s Rudy Espinoza to hear about their fundraiser for outdoor workers - aka the men and women whose livelihoods depend on selling goods or executing jobs on the street. From a food perspective we’re talking about taqueros, fruteros, eloteros, and everyone in between. 

Helpful Links:

Cafe De Leche www.cafedeleche.net

Cafe De Leche’s GoFundMe for staff https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-CDL-employees-after-the-eaton-fire

Fiorelli Pizza https://www.fiorellipizza.com/

Inclusive Action for the City https://www.inclusiveaction.org/

IAC’s relief fund for outdoor workers https://www.gofundme.com/f/cash-aid-for-outdoor-workers-impacted-by-la-county-wildfires

LA Community Meals https://www.instagram.com/lacommunitymeals/

Khushbu Shah’s article on restaurants leading the relief efforts https://khushbushah.substack.com/p/restaurants-were-the-first-to-step

Meghan McCarron on food service workers in the Palisades https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/us/los-angeles-fires-service-workers.html

Other Relief Efforts:

World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/california-fires-jan25

Slice Out Hunger https://sliceouthunger.org/

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