Return to Front Burner

RE: RESTAURANT HELP

Tracey Evers, executive director of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, sends this message. Please read it and do something. Now.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts:
The Dallas-area Restaurant Community Responds

On the day that Hurricane Katrina came ashore, Blaise Hadley, regional vice president of Outback Steakhouse and incoming president of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association (GDRA), took his crew along with trucks and several days’ worth of food into the heart of Mississippi and Louisiana. Their mission was to follow and feed the search and rescue crews during the days that followed. On Wednesday, August 31, Blaise sent an email to the GDRA board and staff that read in part, “…these cities are completely demolished, and the refugees will have no homes or place to go for a long time . . . this is devastating on all levels. I have never seen anything like it. Anything you guys can do back home to support this effort will never be forgotten by these communities.”
By the end of the week, hundreds of Dallas-area restaurants had contacted the GDRA and other organizations to find out how they could help. The GDRA has focused its efforts on three immediate needs: feeding the evacuees who are being housed in shelters, Reunion Arena, and soon the Dallas Convention Center, preparing and donating food and essentials to the North Texas Food Bank, and raising money for the Red Cross. An email and fax went out to members of the restaurant community, which responded immediately.
Restaurants such as Sonny Bryan’s, Bakers Ribs, Carrabbas, Chamberlains/Fish Market, Chilis, Corner Bakery, Blue Mesa, and many more have started taking food to feed 1000 people at a time at Reunion Arena.
And Baine Brooks from Two Rows Grill has organized shelter feedings at and around Samuel Grand Rec Center. Norma’s Café, Steel, Mattito’s, Tejano Café, Culpepper Steakhouse, Hooters, and many more have been putting together meals for hundreds of people stranded at shelters or motels in the area. Other restaurants such as Maguire’s, The Food Company, Culinaire, and Blue Mesa are preparing and freezing trays of food that will be taken to the North Texas Food Bank, who anticipates that their demand for food will significantly increase as more and more people begin to look for work and try to find places to live. Other restaurants, such as Jeroboam and The Green Room, have committed to find volunteers to assist in producing extra meals at the food bank’s Community Kitchen. And some restaurants, such as Perry’s Steakhouse, have placed large orders of water, toiletries, pre-packed foods and essentials to be drop-shipped to the North Texas Food Bank. They will continue to place these orders over the next several weeks, according the needs of the Food Bank at that time. Also, several restaurants have provided containers for donated canned goods, toiletries, socks and clothing to be donated to the Salvation Army and the North Texas Food Bank. Beginning next week, the GDRA
Restaurant Community Responds, page 2

will compile a list of those restaurants to distribute to news outlets so that residents will know where to take these types of items.
Many restaurants will be holding wine dinners and special events and donating a portion of those sales to the Red Cross or other relief organizations. On Labor Day, 100% of sales from Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House (Spring Valley Road in Dallas and Main Street in Fort Worth), Sullivan's Steakhouse, and all area Texas Land & Cattle Restaurants will be donated to the American Red Cross. Consolidated Restaurant Operations will designate one item in each of their concepts (Cool River, El Chico, Spaghetti Warehouse, Good Eats, Cantina Laredo, III Forks) that will include a $1 donation for the Red Cross for each item sold. All Luna de Noche restaurants will be donating a percentage of their sales during a particular week in September.
On October 5, the National Restaurant Association will host “Dine Out for America”, where all participating restaurants around the country will donate all or a portion of their sales to the American Red Cross. For more information, go to www.restaurant.org.
The GDRA is also working to set up a job bank site for the hospitality community. Members of the association have been emailing in to alert evacuees about job positions that could be filled.
“The restaurant community has responded with tremendous passion and vigor,” said Frank Barnard, president of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, “Over the next several weeks and probably months, we will need to continue these efforts and make sure that we treat these new guests in our city as if they were regular guests in our restaurants. I know we are up to the task.”
As more develops, the GDRA will continue to provide updates.

###

Nancy Nichols · September 3, 2005 11:23 AM