Brooks Museum terminates restaurant contract after social media post about fundraiser for Gaza

The Brooks Art Museum of Memphis is cutting ties with its in-house restaurant and catering company after the restaurant announced some proceeds from an upcoming dinner would be sent to a charity providing humanitarian aid for children affected by the ongoing violence in Gaza.

Loaf, a Memphis restaurant and catering company, routinely draws inspiration for menus from Memphis' immigrant communities, incorporating traditional dishes and ingredients in reimagined fare. The restaurant saw fairly immediate success with Chef Kale Carmon's dishes, quickly earning a following.

Carmon, a food justice ministry coordinator at First Congregational Church in Cooper-Young, was contracted by the Brooks and opened up shop inside of the museum in early 2023.

Loaf routinely organized tasting dinners at the museum, with prices going between $85 and $100 per person for multiple courses. All tasting dinners featured a new menu built around seasonal ingredients.

One such dinner was scheduled for Dec. 20. At the bottom of Loaf's social media post announcing the event, the restaurant informed would-be guests that some proceeds would benefit the 31-year-old charity mission, the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.

"We'll be donating a percentage of the profit from this event to Palestinian children currently experiencing a major humanitarian crisis," the post read.

In addition to raising proceeds for children in a warzone, the post also said, "This menu will be a celebration of a seasonal produce, fowl, and seafood of late fall/early winter [sic], and several dishes will incorporate elements of the cuisines of Palestine."

The event was spotted by conservative local radio station KWAM, and the station posted about it on Facebook with a caption reading, "The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the oldest museum in Tennessee, is hosting a lavish and pricey dinner to raise money for the Palestinians."

The comments under the post, which can be found on Facebook, equated the effort to raise funds for children in Gaza as anti-Semitism.

In an email to museum donors obtained by The Commercial Appeal, the museum apologized for the dinner and said it had been canceled. Further, the email said, the museum "terminated its contract with the catering vendor."

Carmon could not be reached for comment.

The Dec. 20 tasting dinner would not have been the first time Loaf has raised funds for humanitarian causes. When the restaurant served a traditional Chickasaw dish called "Pashofa," a portion of the proceeds from that dish were donated to the local indigenous advocacy group Native Rites.

According to social media posts, after Loaf set up shop in Brooks, it also raised funds for humanitarian organizations that assisted Turkish and Syrian citizens in the aftermath of deadly earthquakes in February.

"The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art understands the profound immorality of the brutal atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. We are heartbroken for the Israeli and Palestinian civilians suffering in the ensuing violence as Israel seeks to defend its people as the Jewish nation. We hope for a peaceful solution," the email read.

The email also stated that the Loaf, "sought to convert the dinner into a fundraiser without the knowledge of approval of museum leadership."

In a statement to The CA, Brooks executive director Zoe Kahr reiterated, "Without the knowledge or approval of museum leadership, Loaf sought to frame the December tasting dinner as a fundraiser, which is against museum policy; our on-site fundraising exclusively supports the museum."

The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund was established in 1992 by a coalition of humanitarian organizations. According to its website, the organization ensures donations are not routed to Hamas by checking individuals and organizations receiving donations against a list of terrorist organizations put together by the U.S. Treasury Department on its Office of Foreign Assets Control.

To date, more than 6,600 children in Gaza have been killed during the ongoing siege, according to figures from Al Jazeera and Reuters.

United Nations officials have described the Gaza Strip as a "children's graveyard."

The Times of Israel reports that of the 1,200 killed inside of Israel on Oct. 7, around 50 victims were 19 or younger, including two infants.

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering issues tied to hospitals, healthcare, and resource access. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.