This guide is designed as a resource for community organizers, event coordinators, and space holders to build environments where marginalized individuals, particularly queer, trans, and Black, Indigenous, people of color, can feel safe, respected, and empowered. We recognize the systemic harm often perpetuated against these communities and aim to offer tangible strategies for protecting individuals, managing conflict, and fostering intentional, accountable spaces. Whether you're organizing a protest, a communal event, or simply managing a shared space, this guide will equip you with tools for self-regulation, negotiation, and collective care.
A collaborative media project produced by the CHAAD Project, based in Chicago, IL, and Restaurantera Feminista in CDMX.
The dominant narrative inside hospitality spaces worldwide is that of chefs and owners, the majority of whom are predominantly white and male. Restaurant and bar spaces are highly diverse, employing more women and women of color than any other industry. Yet, their experiences, ideas, and voices go largely unheard in the food landscape.
Tables Crossing Borders is a collaborative media project produced by CHAAD, based in Chicago, IL, and Restaurantera Feminista in CDMX. We aim to center the work of hourly restaurant workers, primarily women, non-binary, trans, immigrant, caretakers, and people of the global majority.
We are small grassroots organizations operating in our communities. Your support helps us continue producing zines and paying writers and illustrators for their work. All funds will be used to pay our writers, illustrators, and editors, and go towards printing hundreds of free zines for our community.
Una de las personas de nuestro grupo fue detenida... y no estábamos preparados.
Cuando G fue detenido por ICE, todo lo que creíamos saber sobre la respuesta rápida se volvió realidad, y muy deprisa. En cuestión de horas, nos vimos corriendo a contrarreloj para conseguir asistencia legal, movilizar información, apoyar a su familia y rastrear su ubicación a través de varios estados.
Así es como se desarrolló todo.
Esto es lo que aprendimos.
Y esto es lo que hubiéramos deseado tener listo antes de que sucediera.
Compartimos nuestra experiencia para que otros no tengan que improvisar en medio de una crisis.
One of our people was taken…and we weren’t prepared.
When G was detained by ICE, everything we thought we knew about rapid response became real, fast. In a matter of hours, we were scrambling to find legal support, move information, support his family, and track his location across multiple states.
This is what that looked like.
This is what we learned.
And this is what we wish we had ready before it happened.
We’re sharing our experience so others don’t have to figure it out in crisis.
This Toolkit is a practical, community-informed resource designed to help restaurants and bars protect their workers in moments of heightened ICE activity. Built from strategies shared at CHAAD’s citywide town hall in the fall of 2025, the guide outlines clear steps for safety planning, internal communication, rapid-response coordination, and employee support. It equips hospitality workplaces with the tools, protocols, and neighborhood networks needed to keep staff safe, strengthen collective defense, and ensure our industry stands united in caring for the people who make it run.
This Toolkit is a practical, community-informed resource designed to help restaurants and bars protect their workers in moments of heightened ICE activity. Built from strategies shared at CHAAD’s citywide town hall in the fall of 2025, the guide outlines clear steps for safety planning, internal communication, rapid-response coordination, and employee support. It equips hospitality workplaces with the tools, protocols, and neighborhood networks needed to keep staff safe, strengthen collective defense, and ensure our industry stands united in caring for the people who make it run.
As people dedicated to the restaurant and hospitality industry, we understand that water is a valuable resource in our workplaces. In this edition, we invite you to value our health just as much. All workers can and should redefine our work by changing its material conditions and promoting self-care for both body and mind.
As people dedicated to the restaurant and hospitality industry, we understand that water is a valuable resource in our workplaces. In this edition, we invite you to value our health just as much. All workers can and should redefine our work by changing its material conditions and promoting self-care for both body and mind.
Personal Boundaries are guidelines or rules regarding what you will and will not do in
relationships. The purpose of boundaries is to protect ourselves and others from harm or
exploitation. We often consider implementing boundaries within relationships with loved ones,
friends, and family—still, some of the most crucial boundaries to set those with our place of work.
You have the right to feel safe and respected in your workplace. Even the most liberal of employers
can erode your boundaries. Their job is to keep their business running and squeeze every penny of
labor out of you. It is your job to assert your humanity. Set boundaries with your job!
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