LOCAL RESTAURANTS & TASTING ROOMS DONATE TO HELP FEED THE HUNGRY

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On September 26, 2017September 26, 2017

17th Annual “Dine, Taste, and Donate” Scheduled

Erica Vadés, Brand and Marketing Manager at People Helping People (PHP), (L) and Stephany Reyes Chavarria, from the Mad and Vin Restaurant at the Landsby Hotel, hold the poster identifying the Restaurant as a participant in the annual Dine and Donate fundraiser for PHP.

On Thursday and Friday, October 19th and 20th People Helping People (PHP) will conduct its 17th Annual Dine, Taste, and Donate program to help fill “Empty Bowls.” The Dine, Taste, and Donate event joins food and beverage purveyors and their customers in support of PHP’s food program. That food program delivers more than 260,000 pounds of food each year to feed nearly1,200 individuals in the Santa Ynez and Los Alamos Valleys.

Santa Ynez Valley restaurants will be donating a portion of their gross proceeds from breakfast, lunch, or dinner on October 19th and tasting rooms will be donating on Friday October 20th to People Helping People’s (PHP) Food Program. Monday, October 16th is World Food Day, a day set aside to recognize that there are people throughout the world and even in our home town that do not have enough to eat.

“I know that it seems inconceivable that in our beautiful and wealthy region, children and their parents go to sleep hungry,” said Dean Palius, C.E.O. at PHP. “Yet, that is in fact the case with County statistics showing that 1 in 5 individuals, including many of our neighbors suffer from food insecurity, ‘not knowing at some time each month, where their next meal will come from.’ Folks that come to PHP to request food are a growing number of seniors living on small fixed incomes and those working in the hospitality and agricultural industries struggling to make ends meet for a family of four on a monthly income of $3,000 per month or less. Often at the end of each month, these people must choose between paying the rent and utilities or buying food for their children.”

According to Palius, this year, 14 restaurants and 6 tasting rooms will participate in the Dine, Taste, and Donate program. Donor restaurants include A-RU Japanese Restaurant, Ballard Inn & Gathering Table, CHOMP, Coffee Cabin, Industrial Eats, Longhorn Coffee Shop, Los Olivos Café & Wine Merchant, Mad & Vin at the Landsby, Pattibakes, Succulent Café, The Hitching Post II, The Vineyard House, Tower Pizza, Viking Garden.

Tasting rooms participating include Frequency Wine Company, Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company, Longoria Wines, Santé Wine Bar & Lounge, Turiya Wines, and Wandering Dog Wine Bar

Erica Valdes, PHP’s Brand and Marketing Manager, said that this year PHP is hoping to increase much needed funding for the food program from all of the October Empty Bowls fund raising components. Valdes stated that PHP also raises funds through a direct mail appeal sent to 4,000 homes. The mail piece lists the restaurants and tasting rooms participating in the Dine, Taste, and Donate and includes raffle tickets that can be purchased to participate in a drawing for a top prize valued at $1,000. Valdes said that the mailer will be arriving at homes early in October.

To obtain more information regarding PHP’s Empty Bowls Campaign to End Hunger, find an updated list of Dine, Taste, and Donate participants, or purchase raffle tickets, visit www.syvphp.org/events/empty-bowls.

If you own or manage a business that would like to participate in Dine and Donate, contact Erica Valdes at 686-0295 or email Erica@syvphp.org. To read more about PHP and its food and other programs: www.syvphp.org or call 686-0295.