Heirloom MKE is turning its Bay View dining room into something closer to a conversation than a meal on November 15, when the restaurant teams up with nationally recognized chef Q. Ibraheem for a five-course dinner called EBT & Fine China. Tickets run $140 per person, and the event starts at 4 p.m. at 2378 S. Howell Ave., with $5 from every ticket going to a Milwaukee nonprofit that fights food insecurity.
The collaboration, detailed by OnMilwaukee, pairs Heirloom's farm-to-table sensibility with Ibraheem's reputation as a chef, farmer and educator known for underground supper clubs, community advocacy and sustainable food education. The dinner brings together Heirloom's and Ibraheem's culinary teams.
A Menu Built Around a Pointed Question
The dinner's title is not just a hook: the event listing invites guests to attend EBT & Fine China. The account name, Ibraheem's business brand, translates to “ghetto Sesame Street” spelled backwards, as explained by The TRiiBE. The Daily Northwestern described Ibraheem's supper club as encouraging cross-community building and exposure.
Ibraheem's national profile predates this Bay View appearance by several years. She was recognized as a CNN Hero in 2021 after providing roughly 60,000 free meals to more than 600 people across the Chicago area during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Daily Northwestern. That shift, from high-end private dining toward community food relief, mirrors the thematic spine of the EBT & Fine China concept itself.
Heirloom MKE's Bay View Restaurant
Heirloom MKE is hosting the dinner.
Each $140 ticket for the November dinner includes all five courses and service fees, with signature cocktails and wine pairings available for an additional charge, per OnMilwaukee. The $5 contribution per ticket goes to Resources & Beyond, a Milwaukee nonprofit the outlet describes as helping fight food insecurity and support underserved families and individuals throughout Wisconsin.
Why the Beneficiary Matters Locally
Resources & Beyond, founded by Executive Director Sen-Soray Erving, partners with Hunger Task Force as its primary supplier to distribute emergency food from its location on North 76th Street, according to its GuideStar profile. Beyond its emergency pantry, the organization runs summer meal distributions for youth, mobile food markets, and annual winter coat drives, with its summer meal program operating three days a week to feed Milwaukee children during school breaks, Urban Milwaukee reported in June.
The need those programs address is substantial. Milwaukee County's overall food insecurity rate hit 12.8% in 2022, with child food insecurity reaching 26.8% and food insecurity among Black residents reaching 30%, according to data compiled by the FoodCare Coalition from USDA and Feeding America figures. Nearly 88,000 Milwaukee County households received FoodShare, Wisconsin's SNAP program, that same year, with 43.7% living below the federal poverty line and almost 45% including children under 18, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found.
More recently, Hunger Task Force reported on October 8 that it serves nearly 180,000 people monthly across Wisconsin, including roughly 60,000 in the Milwaukee area, with one in seven recipients a senior citizen, according to Milwaukee's NPR station. Fixed incomes and mobility issues leave older adults particularly exposed to food insecurity, the station noted, underscoring the kind of need the EBT & Fine China ticket donation is meant to support.
OnMilwaukee's Dining Month coverage, which includes this story, is brought to readers through partnerships with Potawatomi Casino & Hotel and Educators Credit Union. The piece was written by senior food writer and dining editor Lori Fredrich, who received a Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch award from the Wisconsin Restaurant Association in 2024.
