Dining Out for Life

THIS THURSDAY MARCH 29TH, WHERE WILL YOU DINE?
(Edited from the Press Release)


Vancouver, BC – On March 29th, with your support, 209 local restaurants will help provide thousands of meals to the needy.

For the 12th year in a row, Lower Mainland and Whistler restaurants will support Dining out for Life, an event that sees participating restaurants donate 25 per cent of their food sales on March 29th to help feed people living with a life-threatening illness.

Funds raised will be split between A Loving Spoonful and Friends For Life, two charities that help thousands of people each year living with AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses by providing nutritional food and other forms of assistance.

In 2006, more than 25,000 people "dined out for life" in 193 participating restaurants during breakfast, lunch and dinner, raising more than $166,000. This year, a record 209 restaurants are participating. By making the choice to choose this night to dine out customers have the opportunity to provide meals to others by doing nothing more then eating a wonderful meal. By choosing a participating restaurant for your breakfast meeting (11 breakfast locations) or association lunch (43 lunch locations), your business can also make a difference, simply by dining out.

In addition to the restaurants’ donations, diners are encouraged to make individual donations. And the generosity doesn’t stop there! Wolf Blass wines will donate 75 cents from every bottle purchased at restaurants and liquor stores throughout B.C. during the entire month of March and Stella Artois will contribute $1 from every sale at participating restaurants that day.
At Zin Restaurant and Lounge in the Pacific Palisades Hotel, not only are they giving on March 29th but every month they have a “Red Ribbon Table�, donating 25% of the proceeds from that table to Dining Out For Life and that’s all year long!

"The money raised by the restaurants, is crucial to the work of the charities they sponsor. Most of the members and clients of Friends For Life and A Loving Spoonful struggle with multiple health challenges as well as poverty. The funds raised through Dining Out For Life allow us to provide them with much needed nutritional supports, without which their health would deteriorate� says Friends For Life's Executive Director Evin Jones. “We are so grateful to the public, the restaurants and to our sponsors for their generous support.�

Friends For Life operates a wellness centre for people living with a life-threatening illness, their families, and caregivers. Formed with the belief that no one should face a serious illness alone, the Centre provides alternative therapies, social support and meals programs free of charge in a safe, confidential environment. Hundreds of volunteers deliver programs that include massage/body work, naturopathic and Traditional Chinese Medicine, yoga, one-to-one counseling, Cancer and HIV/AIDS support groups, meals served in a warm social environment and care for individuals confined to their homes.

A Loving Spoonful provides free, nutritious meals to men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS in the Greater Vancouver area. More than 2,500 meals for more than 200 clients are prepared and delivered by volunteers each week. The “Spoon� executes five distinct meal programs including baby formula delivery to HIV positive mothers not eligible to receive compensation. One of these mother’s writes “…My outlook is more hopeful now. When I look into the faces of my three children – while dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing how long I have to live – the caring and support I get from A Loving Spoonful is what helps me…�

So if you only Dineout once this month,
make it March 29th

To see a list of participating restaurants log on to the website at www.DiningOutForLife.com