The Portland Restaurants Donating to Organizations Serving Black Communities

As protests continue across the US and worldwide sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, protesting police brutality and America’s history of white supremacy broadly, Portland restaurants have been responding in solidarity. Alongside social media posts supporting the protests, many restaurants and cafes — mostly run by non-black allies trying to show support for the black community — have been donating proceeds to critical organizations like Black Lives Matter, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Campaign Zero, despite most restaurants still reeling financially and structurally from the pandemic.

Visiting the restaurants and cafes that are donating money is a fine way to to support these important causes, as well as dining at black-owned restaurants and donating directly to a food justice organization. For those looking to support black-owned restaurants directly, this directory is a valuable resource, as well as this meta-list.

Normandie
The Bretonic coastal restaurant Normandie pledged to donate 20 percent of its sales for the next two weeks — and possibly beyond that — to Don’t Shoot Portland, a local nonprofit outreach and activist organization working to dismantle police violence.

Mama Bird
Chef Gabe Pascuzzi’s wood fire-grilled chicken shop plans to donate $3 for each bird it sells to Know Your Rights Camp, a campaign and legal defense initiative funded by Colin Kaepernick that empowers youth and educates them on interacting with law enforcement. Mama Bird will run the campaign through June, possibly longer.

Earl Ninsom Restaurants
Earl Ninsom’s group of popular Thai restaurants — Eem, Paadee, and Langbaan — will donate 10 percent of this week’s sales to Campaign Zero, a national organization devoted to ending police violence.

Hat Yai
Ninsom’s most casual, counter service restaurant specializing in Thai fried chicken will also be making regular donations to a variety of organizations in the coming weeks, including the Portland African American Leadership Forum, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and Rosemary Anderson High School, and the historic civil rights organization NAACP.

Sisters Gourmet Deli
This North Williams sandwich shop is doing an online raffle, donating all the proceeds to Black Lives Matter. Customers pay $5 to enter by sending funds to the Venmo @sistersgourmetdeli. At 4 p.m. Sunday, the restaurant will choose three winners, who will receive a sweatshirt.

Upper Left Roasters
A local coffee roaster with cafés in Ladd’s Addition and downtown, Upper Left will donate 100 percent of its cafés’ profits this weekend to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Elephant’s Delicatessen
This local deli chain says it has made contributions to Campaign Zero, the Urban League of Portland, and Care Not Cops, and will match any employee’s contribution to these organizations, or others that they choose. Employees will need to email receipts to info@elephantsdeli.com.

Petunia’s Pies and Pastries
A local bakery proving that vegan and gluten free baking can still taste great, Petunia’s is donating 50 percent of its cafe profits this week through Sunday to the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Urban League of Portland, a civil rights and social service group for black Oregonians.

Canard
The lauded French bistro and wine bar has reopened for takeout and delivery, and will donate 20 percent of its sales this weekend to NAACP and the Urban League of Portland.

Sweetheart St. Johns
A boutique pastry shop and bakery in St. Johns, Sweetheart is donating 25 percent of this week’s proceeds to Don’t Shoot Portland.

Bullard
The Texas-meets-Portland superstar Bullard is pledging to donate proceeds from this week’s family meal sales to the American Civil Liberties Union and to Don’t Shoot Portland.

Dame
Wine shop and pop-up host Dame is raffling off a magnum of wine each week and donating 100 percent of the proceeds, split evenly between Color of Change and both the national and local branches of Black Lives Matter.

Kee’s Loaded Kitchen
This Northeast Portland food cart is providing donor-sponsored meals to black Portlanders and protesters, accepting donations through @keesloadedkitchen on Venmo, $KeeLoadedKitchen on Cash App, and rockstarrkee@gmail.com on PayPal.

Red Sauce Pizza
Red Sauce has been raising money for queer and POC-supportive organizations for years, but most recently it’s raised thousands for a number of different organizations, giving $200 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, $600 to the Black Mama’s Bail Out fund, $150 to the Free Lunch Collective, around $1,500 for Rose Haven, and more. Owner Shardell Dues even donated $200 to Kee’s Loaded Kitchen. She’s still raising money for similar causes.

Never Coffee
Local, hip coffee group Never Coffee pledged to donate 100 percent of the proceeds from sales and tips the weekend of June 6. The donations will go to Campaign Zero, and the NAACP.

Fifty Licks
Ice cream brand Fifty Licks says it will donate 50 percent of the profits from all gift cards sold from now through June 7 to Campaign Zero. Gift cards are available in the shops, as well as online.

Ippai
A monthly Japanese comfort food pop-up program, Ippai suspended its usual weekly takeout menu for a hot dog fundraiser on Thursday, June 4 at Milk Glass Mrkt. The $50 menu included two styles of hot dogs, Japanese potato salad, lentil salad, miso-sesame chocolate chip cookies, and a 24-ounce pouch of cold brew coffee. All proceeds go to Critical Resistance PDX, a prison industrial complex abolitionist group.

Sugarpine Drive-In
Though Sugarpine Drive-In is closed for orders of its regular menu due to COVID-19, the drive-through shop on the Columbia River is offering produce boxes, ready-to-go picnics, and make-at-home dinners. The riverside spot says it will donate a portion of this week’s sales will be donated to the Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based black activism group, and Reclaim the Block, a Minneapolis-based group focused on divesting from the police.

Magna
The Filipino restaurant from Carlo Lamagna plans to donate 75 percent of the proceeds from this week’s pre-set meals to Campaign Zero, Action Bail Fund, and Black Visions Collective. The meal includes bringhe (a sticky rice dish), Lamagna’s mother’s crab fat noodles, and a roasted banana ensaymadang bread.

Coava Coffee
This Portland-based coffee chain pledged to donate 100 percent of its June 6 and June 7 cafe and online profits to the NAACP and Campaign Zero.

Kate’s Ice Cream
This small ice cream company pledged to donate 50 percent of its pint pickup proceeds to Color of Change on June 2.

Yonder and Mae
Chef Maya Lovelace says she has donated to Campaign Zero, Black Vision Collective, Minnesota Freedom Fund, Reclaim the Block, and Don’t Shoot Portland, plus assorted medical supporters and PDX bail funds on behalf of her two restaurants.

Stumptown
Stumptown announced that it would donate $50,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Straightaway Cocktails
This local distiller and purveyor of bottled cocktails says it has donated $2,000 to Unite Oregon.

Heirloom Seedhouse
A seed farm founded in Portland, Heirloom Seedhouse says it donated all sales from its seeds on Sunday and Monday to Black Food Sovereignty Northwest.

Gado Gado
This Indonesian restaurant announced it would donate 50 percent of May 31st’s sales to the Black Visions Collective. The team behind the restaurant is planning on donating further, but is currently in discussions about how best to approach it.

Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty
This North Mississippi pizzeria and restaurant announced it had donated a portion of last week’s proceeds to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Tusk & Ava Gene’s
This restaurant group announced on its social media channels that it donated money to Reclaim the Block, the NAACP, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Campaign Zero, and the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

Matta
On May 30, this Vietnamese food cart donated half of its sales to the George Floyd Memorial Fund.

Hungry Heart
Over the weekend, this cafe announced it would donate 10 percent of its sales to the Black Visions Collective. In addition, it sold quarts of its soups and donated 100 percent of the proceeds from those sales to Black Lives Matter.

• Black-owned restaurant directory [Support Black-Owned Restaurants]
• Portland Restaurant Owners Stand in Solidarity with Protesters, Black Lives Matter [EPDX]