Andrew Zimmern on Feeding People in Minneapolis: ‘Have Faith’

According to chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern, fostering community has never been more vital in the city he calls home: Minneapolis.

“Life is about action steps,” Zimmern tells TODAY.com, adding that living in the Midwest city is “doubly, triply surreal” due to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

For more than a month, ICE has maintained a heavy presence in Minneapolis, despite recently announcing plans to withdraw 700 agents (out of over 3,000). Amid raids and protests, business for restaurants in the city has plummeted.

Zimmern ladles soup for patrons at Soup for You in Minneapolis. Courtesy Andrew Zimmern

Emotions were already tense in the city over the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer on Jan. 7, when the killing of Minneapolis man Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on Jan. 24 made them boil over.

“Nothing really ever got solved by thinking, but by doing,” says Zimmern. “You oftentimes get, not only the immediate relief of those feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness with whatever negative emotions you’re feeling, but some long-term conviction that the direction you’re moving is the one that you should be.”

So, Zimmern clocked in at “radical soup kitchen” Soup for You, cooking and serving one of his favorite recipes, “Grandma Zimmern’s Tailgating Pot of Love,” made with kielbasa and peas. He posted on Instagram about the experience on Jan. 23.

“The grace that they offer their guests. You know, they serve people? You don’t line up; you sit at a table, and you’re waited on by the volunteers,” Zimmern says of the pay-what-you-can cafe. “You’re brought a tray with desserts from the same bakery that I buy my Thanksgiving pies at.”

Zimmern did this alongside a group of other volunteers, all focused on nourishing the shell-shocked community.

“They had asked me a couple of times before, and it never really worked out,” says Zimmern, who has long been open about his history with homelessness and addiction, adding that he was “dying” to volunteer for the organization.

“When this last opportunity came around, I said, ‘Absolutely,’ and then it was magnified, because two months after we found the date in January that worked for everyone, ICE arrived in town,” he says.

Zimmern takes a selfie with his staff seated in the background at Huang Restaurant in Minneapolis. Courtesy Andrew Zimmern

“I think we do have to have faith, hope and lunch together soon,” he says in the video he posted on social media. “I’m not here because I’m virtue-signaling or because this is a one day a year thing for me. I’m here because this is part of my regular practice of being a citizen, and I want to encourage everyone who sees this to do something like it where you live.”

Zimmern says restaurants in the city are under a lot of stress: “Every day my phone is ringing with people who need help, who have nowhere else to turn.”

He says he owns or is a partner in many restaurants in the city and surrounding areas, and frequently fears not “knowing if any of those businesses are OK.” But the silver lining is the good work he sees people doing around him.

“If you’re in a city that has ICE, go out to eat, support local restaurants, support agencies that are helping local restaurants,” Zimmern says.

Andrew Zimmern takes a selfie with his staff seated in the background at Huang Restaurant in Minneapolis. Courtesy Andrew Zimmern

“We’ve gone out every night. We took our entire office — 20-plus people — to lunch a week ago at a restaurant called Quang,” he says. The Eat Street restaurant is a block away from where Pretti was killed. “Here’s a restaurant that, when I came here, 34 years ago, fed me for free because I didn’t have any money. I had just gotten out of treatment. I was living in a halfway house here. I owe that family a debt that I can never repay.”

As “ICE Out” protesters continue to gather in the area, Zimmern says he’s “extolling the beauties” of Minneapolis.