South End Restaurants Fundraise for Palestinian Children

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

Restaurants across Seattle, including the South End, joined a call this past week to participate in a fundraiser for Palestinian children.

The Palestine fundraiser was started by Taylor Cheney, the owner of Yalla, a Middle Eastern restaurant that serves Lebanese, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian foods. In October, according to Eater, Yalla raised $7,000 for The Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), a humanitarian nonprofit that coordinates medical aid to children in Gaza.

More than 50 restaurants committed to pledging a portion of the proceeds from their sales to PCRF. Each restaurant has set its own dates and times for its fundraiser. Those specific times and dates can be found on Yalla's Instagram, where participating restaurants have been tagged in a specific post. Yalla hosted a community feast in support of Palestine on Nov. 19 at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

Cheney told Eater that she had seen mentions of restaurant fundraisers in many cities and was surprised not to see one in Seattle. She also told Eater that while she did receive some backlash (mostly in the form of negative Google and Yelp reviews), she stressed that all the fundraiser is trying to do is raise money for children.

In the South End, Musang, Bar del Corso, Hood Famous, Darkalino's, The Hideout, Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen, Mezzarotte, Ciudad, and Homer are among the restaurants that raised money for PCRF.

Sara Knowles, co-founder and owner of the restaurant Homer, which serves Middle Eastern-inspired food, said she was happy to see that people rallied to their fundraiser this past Sunday, Nov. 19. She has not yet calculated how much was raised.

Knowles also echoed Cheney about supporting PCRF.

"For us, having young kids, it doesn't feel controversial if it's going to help kids," Knowles said of participating in the fundraiser. "It's not mutually exclusive from also wanting hostages free and other human rights and liberties," Knowles said.

Still, Knowles admitted that it can be difficult to navigate such a polarizing issue and said small businesses are often sensitive about what they put on social media to avoid alienating customers.

Homer is also known for hosting a monthly dinner where a percentage of the proceeds go to a different nonprofit every month.

"I'm open to do more [fundraisers]," Knowles said. "I suspect, unfortunately, the events unfolding won't start coming to a close anytime soon, so if there are more opportunities to fundraise, I am always down."

Local ice cream company Full Tilt is also running its own show of support for Palestine. They posted a "sneak peak" of their "Pints for Palestine" bucket on Facebook. The special Arabic coffee with cardamom flavor received hundreds of shares, likes, and comments. Proceeds from the sale of the new flavor, which was released starting this past Saturday, Nov. 18, will also go to PCRF.

📸 Featured Image: Full Tilt Ice Cream is one South End food business raising funds for Palestine. Photo is attributed to Mikey V (under a Creative Commons, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license).