Eat to Empower Event for Vetri Community Partnership
One of the things that my wife Tara and I have agreed to do in the last 18 months is support social causes we’re passionate about more concertedly and more often.
It’s been something we’d talked about for some time, but until I transitioned from RevZilla operations last year, the time constraints of leading a business and having five young kids at home really impeded our efforts.
Currently, our support comes in a few forms: sometimes a check, sometimes connectivity and sometimes our time. Obviously, we’ve made the biggest impact when we can offer all three.
We also both share a common focus on youth-oriented endeavors.
From my perspective, the biggest lottery in the universe surrounds who brings you into this world. The foundational care, support and opportunity a child is born into, purely by chance, affects everything.
This year we’ve been fortunate to become closer with the Vetri Community Partnership. Their mission hinges on “empowering children and families to lead healthier lives through fresh food, hands on experiences and education”.
Ultimately they are providing and augmenting additional foundational support structure and life skills through food and eating as a platform.
It’s also been great to connect with Chef Marc Vetri and his partner Jeff Benjamin to learn more about how social responsibility and formally giving back has been a part of their approach to building their successful restaurant group for over a decade. Even in the midst of the multi-decade multi-restaurant startup-to-grown-up business lifecycle, they prioritized their focus on giving. They did it right and started doing it when times were still less certain for them personally. Much respect.
Last weekend VCP launched their inaugural “Eat to Empower” benefit event consisting of a few local dinner parties and a Food Festival / afterparty at La Colombe’s flagship in Fishtown.
Tara and I were honored to be asked to invite some friends to a fundraising dinner at our house featuring a collaborative menu by Michelin-rated Chef Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney in DC and Philly star Tod Wentz of Townsend, Oloroso and A Mano.
It was a ton of fun with killer food, but more importantly a high-leverage way to raise money for a foundation doing excellent work benefitting Philadelphia’s future. A big thank you to our friends who participated and offered support.
It obviously feels great to add a little bit of a momentum to a cause that can strengthen the foundation for others. That seems small, however, compared to the massive coordinated lift across the VCP staff, donors, chefs, servers, patrons and local businesses that all offered time, effort and resources to move a big locally focused needle.
Here is the VCP video to accompany the event:
If you’d like to learn more about Vetri Community Partnership or make a donation:
If you’d like to see some more pics from the event:
Thank you and congrats to all who contributed to the success of what was hopefully the first of many Vetri Community Partnership Eat to Empower events.
