Chef Ana Caballero’s initiative to raise money for unemployed Latino cooks, Proyecto Tamal, will end this weekend after raising over $80,000 since its inception in April of 2020. This Sunday’s sale will feature some of the greatest hits in packs of two instead of four so those lucky enough to nab a preorder can try a wide selection of Proyecto Tamal’s favorites. The offerings are always popular, but the project’s end has only driven up demand — tamales are currently sold out. Time to pray for a re-up or find a friend in the know.

In other news...

• Customers can now get a limited-release wine as a part of Di Bruno Bros’s new “Di Bruno Brothers Friends & Wine” collaboration, which arrived on Tuesday, March 9. The wine was developed through a partnership between Di Bruno Bros’s wine manager Sande Friedman (who also stomped the grapes) and La Clarine Farm, a minimal-intervention farm in California. The wine is a blend of 50 percent barbera and 50 percent zinfandel grapes and is only available at the two Di Bruno Bros’s Bottle Shop locations and its forthcoming Wayne outpost. Only 51 cases were produced, so be hasty!
• 76ers star and fan favorite Joel Embiid donated $100,000 to Philadelphia’s homeless and food insecure communities over the weekend, through Project HOME, Sunday Breakfast Mission, and Youth Service INC. The original plan had been to donate his winnings (win or lose) from Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, but Embiid was pulled from the roster when it was discovered he had contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. “COVID-19 has had such an impact on the lives of so many vulnerable people,” Embiid told NBA.com. “I felt it was important to provide more support for individuals and families struggling.” The donation will supply 15,000 meals to the homeless and underserved population of Philadelphia. [KYW]
• Monday, March 8 and Tuesday, March 9, grain-brained bakers, brewers, chefs, and millers will be gathering for the Philly Grain & Malt Symposium, a two-day virtual event organized by Deer Creek Malthouse in Glen Mills. Want to know how to start a micro-bakery or learn how Pennsylvania is encouraging “grain tourism”? Tickets are available online. Tune in while you work from home.
• Day by Day in Center City had been hibernating during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this weekend the brunch spot and catering business announced its plans to come back “most likely” on Thursday, April 1. Until then, fans can get excited about its return through a Pi Day pop-up sale on — duh — Sunday, March 14.
• Ange Branca, the beloved chef behind the now-closed Malaysian restaurant Saté Kampar and director of the collaborative kitchen space Kampar Kitchen, wrote on Instagram about her upsetting experience trying to get a vaccine as a restaurant worker at the new FEMA vaccination site at the Convention Center. Given the fact that the city is still struggling to weed out those who are ineligible for the vaccine, Branca’s observation about initially being turned away is not surprising. “For all of you and especially #bipoc in the restaurant industry, please know that you should not be turned away for a chance to line up for extra vaccines,” Branca wrote. “Restaurant workers are in the 1b category and that is the category that is currently supposed to be vaccinated ASAP.” Go get your shots.