Most fundraisers make you pay twice: once with your wallet, and again with two hours of small talk. Sabor Montclair has the decency to let you skip the second part.
The Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence’s annual takeout dinner returns Saturday, October 10, for its sixth year. Montclair neighbors do the cooking, you eat at home, and every dinner supports the town’s multilingual students and their families. More than $21,000 is already in toward a $40,000 goal, and a matching pledge will double donations made through October 10, up to $6,000.
On this week’s episode of The Montclair Pod, Mike made the case: “It’s not a party. You don’t have to schmooze. You just donate to the cause and that entitles you to one order of delicious food, and you just pick it up and take it home and eat it. It’s the most Larry David fundraiser ever. It’s genius.”
Farnoosh summed it up even faster: “No schmoozing. Just eating.”
What Would Larry Do?
Anyone who has watched Curb Your Enthusiasm knows about Larry’s long war on small talk. In the Season 10 premiere, “Happy New Year,” he discovers that a MAGA hat makes people in Los Angeles steer clear of him, and he starts wearing it as a shield against the dreaded “stop and chat.” The show even gave the world a name for the graceful escape: the “chat and cut.”
Sabor Montclair makes all of that unnecessary. There are no name tags, no hovering by the cheese plate, and no getting cornered by a neighbor who wants your take on the jitney. You pull up at your time slot, a volunteer walks dinner out to your car, and you’re home before anyone can ask what you’ve been up to.
How Sabor Montclair Works
The event asks one thing of you: a reservation. You book a dinner through Givebutter, the online platform MFEE uses for the event, and your donation is your ticket. On October 10, you pick up at your reserved time, starting at 5 p.m., at Union Congregational Church, 176 Cooper Ave.
Then comes the good part: what’s in the bag.
What’s in the Sabor Montclair Dinner?
Each dinner includes two tacos de pernil, slow-roasted marinated pork with pico de gallo and what MFEE calls its “famous green salsa.” Mike is a fan. “I love pernil. Really love it,” he said on the show. “You gotta do the crispy skin.”
Pupusas de frijol con queso, cornmeal griddle cakes with beans and cheese, share the platter with gallo pinto, a dish of seasoned beans and rice. Mexican cinnamon cookies round it out for dessert.
Where Does the Sabor Montclair Money Go?
Proceeds support MFEE’s programs for multilingual learners in Montclair Public Schools. One program is Navegadores Escolares, Spanish for “school navigators.” The program recruits and trains Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking volunteers and matches them with families for one-on-one help, from using the district’s online portal to meeting with teachers to finding health, housing and food resources.
MFEE also runs two bilingual after-school tutoring programs: Oruguitas for kindergarten through fifth grade, and Entrenadores Escolares for middle and high schoolers. On its Sabor Montclair page, the group says its programs and volunteers help families with everything “from Parent/Teacher conferences to pediatrician appointments.” Its new report covers nearly six years of that work.
One of the first families to join Navegadores was Brenda, the Honduran mother at the center of the short documentary BRENDA. The film screened at last year’s Montclair Film Festival, where the Pod hosted a live conversation with her, the filmmakers and Rodriquez-Vars. Rodriquez-Vars has also talked with the Pod about how MFEE supports immigrant families in Montclair.
How to Reserve a Sabor Montclair Dinner
Last year’s dinner sold out. MFEE sold 279 meals, 40 of them donated to Toni’s Kitchen, and raised more than $45,000. This year’s $40,000 goal sits below that total, so Montclair has done this before.
Reserve your dinner at givebutter.com/sabormontclair2026, choose a pickup time and leave the mingling to someone else. Larry would approve.
When: Saturday, October 10; pickup starts at 5 p.m.
Where: Union Congregational Church, 176 Cooper Ave., Montclair
Reserve: givebutter.com/sabormontclair2026
Questions: info@mfee.org
Image credit: MFEE
