Introducing "To-Go Zine"
A charity zine about food culture in L.A. after the 2025 fires
In January 2025, the Santa Ana winds whipsawed through the canyons and mountains of Los Angeles, spurring 14 fires and burning 90 square miles of land, an area larger than the entire District of Columbia.
The fires devastated the L.A. communities of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, but it wasn’t the only recent disaster to afflict the Los Angeles megaregion of 18 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic was one thing, the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes another, unsettling a film industry already on the AI-and-streaming rocks. Then came the 2025 ICE raids and the unrest that followed. A couple of Dodgers World Series wins may be sweet, but those don’t rebuild neighborhoods.
So when my friend Anthony Shu told me he, Jeffrey Liu and Haylie Chan were founding a charity zine about Los Angeles food culture, I jumped at the opportunity to join the editorial team.
To-Go Zine’s first issue, “Care Package,” spotlights the stories about how food bridges culture and crises. From stories about servers dealing with the first night the pandemic became real, to reflections of how Altadena’s devastated restaurant scene has shown its resilience, to investigations of how phone calls during late-night drive-thru visits can build community, To-Go Zine showcases a panoply of stories centered on the thing L.A. is best known for, outside of the pleasant climate and the botox—incredible and delectable food.
We’re hosting a launch party Saturday, April 11, from 4 to 7pm at Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena, one of the surviving Altadena venues featured in this issue.
If you aren’t in L.A. and can’t attend the event, you can buy our issue on shopify and also in select stockists in Los Angeles (we’re still working on the second part).
Our beautifully-designed issue is $30. It also features some interactivity—a crossword puzzle! Personality quizzes! Remember when print media was fun?
Profits from sales until 5/31/26 will benefit The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), a non-profit advocating for and supporting immigrants, the lifeblood powering the kaleidoscopic diversity of the City of Angels. We can also offer free shipping for two copies until 4/25/26.
We hope that this issue is the first of many.
So… why don’t you be an angel and buy a copy here?
