Immigration conversations start at the table at this Washington restaurant

Alba Galdamez knows her way around the kitchen. She is the chef at Immigrant Food’s location near the White House and an immigrant from El Salvador. She moved to the U.S. about 20 years ago and has worked many jobs. But cooking won her heart.

“Out of all the jobs I’ve had, the one that fascinated me the most was cooking,” Galdamez said.

Galdamez says that through its menu, Immigrant Food highlights the tapestry of immigrant cultures that make up the United States. Each dish tells a story. And whether Galdamez is cooking flavors from Venezuela or India, she wants everyone to feel welcome.

“When you come here, you’re basically coming home,” she said. “This restaurant is the fusion of all countries in the world.”

At its three Washington locations, the first of which opened in 2019, Immigrant Food advocates for immigrant-related issues, including comprehensive immigration reform.

Immigration is one of the top issues in this U.S. presidential election, according to a Gallup poll released in April.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to consider immigration the most important issue. In the latest poll, 48% of Republicans, 8% of Democrats, and 25% of independents say immigration is the most important problem facing the country. This is a decrease for Republicans from 57% in February.

A place that feels like home is what Immigrant Food founders Téa Ivanovic and Peter Schechter had in mind while advocating for mostly immigrant-related issues. The restaurant often partners with local nonprofits to provide access to resources such as free legal representation for immigrants.

They also host voter registration drives for new citizens and participate in local community events. They call it “gastroadvocacy.”

“I just thought it was an incredible, such an innovative way to include a social mission into a business model in ways that we had not seen done before,” Ivanovic said.

Ivanovic moved to the U.S. from Belgium as an international student. She played tennis for Virginia Tech and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international studies. She also worked as a Washington correspondent for Oslobodjenje, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s oldest newspaper in the Western Balkans.

“I wasn’t in the restaurant industry at all. I was a journalist. I worked at a think tank. I worked in financial public relations. And when I met my co-founder, Peter, we started talking about this idea of having a restaurant that has a mission,” she said.

And with a significant number of migrants from around the world coming to seek asylum in the United States, Schechter says the story of immigrants today is not so different from when his family moved to the U.S.

Schechter was born in Rome, Italy. His parents are from Austria and Germany.

“Then I moved to Latin America for about almost 10 years, first to La Paz, Bolivia, and then to Caracas, Venezuela. … I came here to do my last few years of high school. In my family we spoke German, Italian and English mixed up,” Schechter said.

Schechter says it should be easy to combine border security and legal immigration while having a humanitarian vision.

“And we need to come to find a way to renew and modernize our immigration laws, so that we can have the security that America needs as a country. Every country needs security and borders and people to control them, but at the same time, we need to have a humanitarian, efficient immigration law,” he noted.

For Katrin Garcia, Immigrant Food’s assistant general manager at the White House location, the restaurant’s partnerships with local nonprofits gave her access to information that is helping her through the U.S. immigration process. Garcia is originally from Venezuela.

“I came to the U.S. three years ago,” she said.

Between coordinating deliveries, welcoming customers, and taking reservations over the phone, Garcia told VOA that despite her degree in marketing she was making $20 a month in Venezuela. It wasn’t enough to live on.

“So, I take my visa, I take my passport, and I come in here,” Garcia said.

Within six months of her arrival in the U.S., she got a job at Immigrant Food. She considers herself fortunate when she thinks about those who cross the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama, on their perilous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I’m lucky. I have a good story,” Garcia added.

For now, Garcia is focusing on getting through her immigration process and other “big dreams.”

“Lawyers for asylum are very expensive. So, I need to work hard. … My big dream is working in events. That’s what I want,” she said.

Galdamez, Garcia, Schechter and Ivanovic are all immigrants with different stories, but they say that together at Immigrant Food, they’re creating a new life for themselves, their families, and those around them.

“I mean, it’s fundamentally about coming to seek a better life, coming to seek a better education for your children, greater opportunities, and sometimes it’s also about escaping prosecution and harassment, persecution in their home countries,” Schechter said.