We Love Buford Highway group puts focus on Peru in its annual FEAST fundraiser

WLBH is holding its third annual fundraiser — dubbed FEAST, which stands for Flavors, Experience, Art, Stories and Tradition — at 6 p.m. Aug. 15, with food, dance performances and speakers.

This year’s fundraiser will look a little different. Instead of playing host to a large mix of vendors, Pabian said, they’re focusing on one country: Peru.

“What we wanted to do with this fundraiser is really give folks an authentic experience of Buford Highway in a way that is educational, more than just a drive-by,” she said.

Arnaldo Castillo, chef-owner of Tio Lucho’s, has created a menu that will include passed hors d’oeuvres and a buffet-style dinner featuring such staples as ceviche; causa, a whipped potato dish with aji amarillo, lime and Duke’s mayonnaise; a cilantro braised beef stew (seco de res); salmon anticuchos; and plenty of aji amarillo.

The money raised by FEAST will help the organization continue its programs, which include working with small business owners to learn what barriers and needs should be addressed and running workshops to provide resources and education to business owners.

WLBH also operates Feeding Families, a program that provides food to several families in need every week. And one of the nonprofit’s greatest successes is the Buford Highway Orchestra Project, a free after-school program that offers music education to around 55 kids.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

And, in partnership with Georgia State University, the organization collects and documents immigrant stories for an oral history project as part of a community archive.

The event is a natural fit for Castillo, who grew up on Buford Highway, having moved there in 1996 so his father could run Peruvian restaurant Costa Verde. Many of the WLBH board members have similar personal ties to the highway, including Pabian’s family, who moved to Atlanta in 1979 from New York, where they had relocated from Taiwan.

Buford Highway offered a place for Pabian and her family to preserve their culture while learning about the countless other nearby communities. “There is a level of coexistence,” she said.

And while she and her neighbors didn’t all speak the same language, they could at least communicate with food. She remembers trying Korean food for the first time thanks to one of her neighbors.

It wasn’t just “food as a voyeuristic sort of approach,” she said. “It was deeper than curiosity — it was a way to get to know our neighbors in a deeper way, learning their customs and traditions.”

FEAST brings food to the forefront with Castillo’s menu. When he opened Tio Lucho’s, the aim wasn’t to re-create dishes exactly as they are served in Peru.

“I take a local ingredient and kind of repurpose it in a way that showcases the technique or that flavor, but it’s a different interpretation of it,” he said.

Since he grew up in the South, Castillo imbues his dishes with distinctly Southern ties because that’s also who he is.

The fundraiser will provide context and stories alongside the food, in the hope of “humanizing this corridor,” Pabian said.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Outsiders might see Buford Highway as a “transient” place, a road one uses to get to a destination, Pabian said, but WLBH’s goal is to reveal the relationships, communities and lifelines of the people who live there.

As the organization broadens its work to serve, protect and give a voice to the people of Buford Highway, support and understanding from the surrounding communities are more important than ever.

“This is what this place means to so many,” Pabian said. “It makes us whole — it’s even deeper than belonging.”

EVENT PREVIEW

We Love Buford Highway FEAST. 6-10 p.m. Aug. 15. $125 per person. 5616 New Peachtree Road, Chamblee. welovebuhi.org/feastbufordhighway