This public history, digital humanities project will chronicle the culinary histories of ethnic communities in Maryland by learning, documenting, engaging, and thereby preserving stories of food businesses. This collaboration between AMST and CGMS explores the multi-faceted culinary identities of our state forged by ethnic immigrant communities here. Food studies is a particularly engaging and provocative lens for exploring intercultural engagements and understanding because all humans must eat, even as specific foods and ritualized meals evoke powerful cultural and emotional structures of meaning and attachment. Foodways is a useful platform because consumption tells stories of the past, present, authority, economic empowerment, trauma, and other life experiences. Within immigrant and ethnic communities, food businesses often function as harbors providing access to dearly missed dishes and goods while serving as centers for community support networks.