Community Fish Fry

To commemorate the one year anniversary of Skid Row People’s Market, we hosted a community fish fry with tilapia, coleslaw, hush puppies, french fries, baked beans, spaghetti, steamed rice and kimchi. Fish fries are a Black tradition and time honored gathering that feeds a sense of community. The cooking was led by Big Mama Angela Harper, Kaniah Chapman, Skid Row Coffee and Skid Row People’s Market.

We served around 200 people with larger plates of piping hot fish with all the sides and fixin’. This event was also a learning lesson as chaos ensued upon frying the tilapia, with passersby and attendees—a grave display of food insecurity in Skid Row.

We were without crowd control protocol and expectation of several hundred people attending. Fortunately, most everyone enjoyed the comforting meal and we gained experience and insights into harm-preventative and trauma-informed protocol and approaches.