[dropcap size=big]M[/dropcap]emo to teachers preparing to join the picket lines on Thursday: There will be tacos.
Some 34,000 L.A. public school teachers are scheduled to strike January 14, unless a last-minute deal is made in their Wednesday meeting with LAUSD. (The original strike date of January 10 was postponed as the two sides battle in court.) A small relief comes in the form of a GoFundMe campaign called Tacos for Teachers that would bring taco trucks to the UTLA picket line, and L.A. wouldn’t have it any other way.
The campaign has has so far reached $10,500 in eight days. The crowdsourced tacos gained enough traction to start trending on GoFundMe. It was started by Democratic Socialist of Los Angeles (DSA-LA) and Los Angeles International Socialist Organization.
So far, DSA has confirmed tacos will be provided by Zingo Tacos in El Sereno at the following locations and schedule.
Jan. 14, 7 am: Robert F Kennedy Community Schools - 3188 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90005
Jan. 15, 12:30 pm: El Sereno Middle School - 2839 N Eastern Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Jan. 16, 3 pm: Theodore Roosevelt High School - 456 S Mathews St, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Jan. 17, 7 am: North Hollywood High School - 5231 Colfax Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91601
Jan. 18, 7 am: Venice High School - 13000 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066
The specifics were announced Friday. But DSA and ISO say they are still looking into adding more stops and more taqueros. Any remaining funds from the GoFundMe not used on tacos will go to Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools.
"We're looking at a number of taco trucks,” DSA-LA organizer Max Belasco told L.A Taco on Tuesday. “The thing is that we're trying to get local ones for each area – one in Northeast L.A., one in West L.A., San Fernando Valley, and so on. We should have that figured out in the next couple of days.”
The strike has been brewing for several months with UTLA and LAUSD at odds over a new contract. The union is hoping to reduce class sizes and better wages for teachers. Los Angeles Unified has said classes will continue if the strike goes on as planned.
These tacos will fuel the strikers and seems like the most appropriate food for a strike in L.A. We all owe the teachers of Los Angeles a taco or four.
[Updated: January 11, 2018]
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