Meet the Players: Following Chicago’s $102.6 Million Migrant Meal Contracts
— Zoe Leigh 🇺🇸🌹 (@mrstealyourwig1) July 12, 2026
Meet the players.
Racquel Fields
Founder and owner of 14 Parish LLC and Color Hospitality Group.
Joe Buonavolanto Jr.
Publicly identified as Executive Director of Seventy-Seven Communities Meal… pic.twitter.com/n06AyfzIiB
Meet the Players: Following Chicago’s $102.6 Million Migrant Meal Contracts
Meet the players.
Racquel Fields
Founder and owner of 14 Parish LLC and Color Hospitality Group.Joe Buonavolanto Jr.
Publicly identified as Executive Director of Seventy-Seven Communities Meal Services LLC and associated with Buona Beef.Mike Iovinelli
Publicly identified as Program Director of Seventy-Seven Communities Meal Services LLC and Vice President of Catering at Beyond Catering.Pastor Chris Harris
Pastor of Bright Star Church. Last summer 2025, During filming with ABC New York, Pastor Chris Harris of Bright Star Church told Danielle Carter-Walters and me that he ran that shelter.Public records show the City of Chicago awarded migrant meal-service contracts through DFSS totaling up to $102,666,631 to two vendors:
14 Parish LLC / Color Hospitality Group
• Contract authority: Up to $57,666,631
• Publicly identified City payments: Approximately $19.38 million
• Illinois Business Interruption Grant: $20,000Seventy-Seven Communities Meal Services LLC
• Contract authority: Up to $45 million
• Publicly reported payments: More than $21 million
• Public reporting states the company was formedin October 2023, just months before being selected for the North Region migrant shelter meal contract.
Combined, public records identify more than $40.3 million in documented payments and up to $102.6 million in contract authority.
News reports also documented complaints from some shelter residents about meal quality, including concerns that the food was cold, old, too spicy, unfamiliar, or not culturally appropriate. The City stated it worked with vendors to improve menus, and 14 Parish stated it met the nutritional requirements of its contract.
We also received information that 14 Parish temporarily used its restaurant kitchen to prepare meals before reportedly obtaining additional commercial kitchen space. I have not independently verified those claims or the reported kitchen location..
One migrant shelter reportedly remains open in the former Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago building in the 4th Ward.
My question is this:
With all of the Chicago restaurants, caterers, food-service businesses, and family-owned establishments that closed during COVID-19—or never recovered afterward—why weren’t these contracts broken up so more local businesses could participate?
Where was this level of investment for Chicago businesses to feed the homeless men, women, and families sleeping under viaducts and throughout our city?
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