Dallas Restaurant Association Supporting Katrina Victims

A Dallas-area food drive will be held through Dec. 31st by restaurants, job postings will be available on the Association’s web page, Dine For America will be held on Oct. 5th, restaurants specials and events will be conducted, and Deep Relief, in which Deep Ellum landlords are offering restaurants specials from restaurateurs from the Gulf Coast will be featured.

As a local chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association, the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association promotes growth of the restaurant industry by providing educational programs, public awareness campaigns, and grass-roots government affairs initiatives.

They also have a government affairs committee and you can join the Association online.

Those interested can be a gala sponsor for $20,000. Some of those sponsors include Mrs. Baird’s Bread, Dr. Pepper, Starbucks, Coke, Borden, and Schepps Dairy among others.

Restaurateurs across the country are reaching out to employees and colleagues who were hurricane victims from both disasters.

The Dine For America event is a nationwide fundraiser with proceeds going to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Independent operators and chains are invited to participate as well as others.

Edna Bayliff and Laren Gardner, founders of California-based Cheeseburger Restaurants served burgers to hurricane victims. In 24 hours after coming up with a plan they had committed $50,000 from their restaurants to feed 12,000 people. They delayed the opening of a new restaurant in Key West, FL and drove non-stop to Pass Christina, Miss. The city had been wiped out. They went to work serving burgers from the Shell Station parking lot.

A man approached them and recounted how the community had saved its brown pelicans, which he said were funny birds with a sense of humor. The couple stayed for more than five days in Pass Christian where they received approval from the health department to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

“Believe me, this was life changing and it took us out of our comfort level,” said Gartner.

Less than a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, Tommy Cvitanovich, owner of New Orleans’ Dragos Seafood, fired up his propane heaters and began cooking.

“I’ve had everything from homeless people to millionaires come and eat a meal,” he said.

He reported his restaurant will continue to provide the meal service for at least another two weeks.

For information about the restaurant projects, go to gdra.org on the web.