Foodie News
Houston Restaurant Weeks celebrates biggest donation ever with a whopping$800,000 to Houston Food Bank
Houston Restaurant Weeks founder Cleverley Stone reveals the 2011 total raised:$800,000.Photo by Sarah Rufca
Cleverley Stone and Houston Food Bank Board of Directors chair Benjamin Samuels.Photo by Sarah Rufca
The month-long 2011 Houston Restaurant Weeks wasn't the longest event — that honor goes to 2010, when many restaurants extended their prix fixe menus through Labor Day — but it was the biggest money-raiser in the event's nine-year history. Founder Cleverley Stone gathered with participatants and sponsors Sunday night at Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse to announce the total amount raised by Houston's 142 participating restaurants and present a check to the Houston Food Bank president Brian Greene.
By donating $5 from every $35 prix fixe dinner tab and $3 from every $20 lunch tab, Houston restaurants donated $800,000 to help the Houston Food Bank feed those with hunger in the greater Houston area. According to Stone, that figure represents 160,000 diners served and an additional $6.8 million in revenue for the participating restaurants. Houston Retaurant Weeks is the food bank's biggest annual fundraiser, so the amount also represents the largest amount ever generated for the organization.
"We only had about 10 more restaurants this year," Stone says. "I think the awareness has been building over the years, like a snowball, and every year the restaurants figure out how to do it better,"
Del Frisco's was the individual restaurant that raised the most money, bringing in $46,400 — the equivalent of about 10,000 HRW meals served.
How many times did you eat out during Houston Restaurant Weeks? What was your favorite destination?
