American Food and Immigration Policy: Past, Present, and Future

Taco Trucks on Every Corner. The Yemeni bodega strike. A Day Without Immigrants. Today, the complex relationships between immigration policy and American food culture are more evident than ever.

MOFAD is teaming up with the Street Vendor Project to explore the impact of US immigration policy — past, present, and future — on American food and culture. Join us for an evening of thought-provoking discussion, followed by an informal reception featuring light refreshments from Brooklyn Brewery and Sonia Perez, a street cart vendor and member of Street Vendor Project’s Leadership Council.

We’ll hear the story of Sonia Perez, and our panel will explore how policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Bracero Program, the Hart-Celler Act, and the Diversity Visa Program have shaped how we eat today. Along the way, we’ll discuss how these policies have affected immigrant food businesses owners and their employees, the roles food businesses play in American immigrant communities, how food shapes perceptions of these communities, and the question of how — and why — a cuisine becomes American.