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Today we share an announcement for Tour D’Epicure, a local fundraiser for America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia. Guests will board trolleys at 4:00 pm (on February 28, 2010) and stop at five fantastic restaurants including Cha Bella, Eos, Leoci’s, Local 11ten, and Sol. Each restaurant will offer a plate paired with two wines and feature an original piece by a local artist that may be acquired through silent auction. Each tour will also visit the Iocovozzi Gallery where guests will be privileged to an exclusive photography exhibit featuring the food bank’s Kids Cafe program. Laura was honored to do the photography for this exhibit, so we feature a few of them here. But you will have to join the Tour D’Epicure for the entire exhibition of photographs!

Space is limited, so make your reservations now; you will enjoy the amazing food by some of Savannah’s best chefs! Tickets are $75/person. Reservations may be made at helpendhunger.org. For more information call 912.721.1796. Proceeds benefit America’s Second Harvest Kids Cafe Program, a leading initiative in reducing childhood hunger.

And in case you are wondering,  “what in the world is Kid’s Cafe about?”, well, here you go:
America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia sponsors thirty-four Kids Café sites in the inner city of Savannah, Chatham County, Toombs County, Bulloch County and Glynn County.  The program provides an evening meal to over 2,500 at-risk children who need a nutritious meal in a safe environment while waiting for their parents to return home from work each day.  Each afternoon volunteers at Kids Café sites serve the children a hot meal and provide mentoring and tutorial assistance.

In Chatham County, there are 33,994 children enrolled in schools.  Of those children, 21,024 are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches due to low household income. For many of these children, the meal we provide is the only evening meal they will receive.

America’s Second Harvest receives minimum reimbursement from the Georgia Office of School Readiness/USDA for meals served to children ages 5 through 12.  The reimbursement rates are not adequate to fully sustain the program.  Moreover, there is no reimbursement for children 13 through 17 who frequently attend after school programming at each site and are hungry.  At our current level of programming, the average loss per site will be approximately $9,000.  To resolve the loss, America’s Second Harvest is seeking out civic organizations, corporations, and faith-based organizations that are willing to adopt a Kids Café site for sponsorship or to assist with other fund-raising efforts.