Vancouver's Tacofino Gastown goes green for Growing Chefs on GivingTuesday, November 29
Restaurant’s Taco Tuesday joins the “Turnip the Heat” fundraiser for the local organization that provides edible educational programming for kids
Growing Chefs.
VANCOUVER WILL BE glowing green for Growing Chefs on November 29—GivingTuesday 2022—to raise awareness and proceeds for the organization’s winter fundraising campaign, “Turnip The Heat”. Locals will be able to spot green lights across the city at BC Place, Canada Place, Science World, City Hall, and the Burrard Street Bridge. Tacofino Gastown is taking part by turning this Taco Tuesday into a GivingTuesday event in support of Growing Chefs.
Running from 4 to 7 pm, the gathering features canapés, cocktails, mocktails, music, a silent auction, and, of course, tacos. Entertainment at the event will be provided by Table Tutors DJ Training Academy.
Many kids in British Columbia lack access to fresh, healthy food or understand where food comes from or how it’s grown. Growing Chefs seeks to change that by offering fun, interactive, hands-on edible education programs, allowing children’s connections to food take root. Through its food literacy programs, which are delivered by teams of chefs and community volunteers, young people get hands-on experience with the whole food cycle, from seed to plate to compost. Growing Chefs delivers a three-month hands-on program in elementary-school classrooms, including in inner-city schools, that teaches kids gardening and cooking skills. On the volunteers' first visit, they help the students plant a fast-growing indoor vegetable garden. The same volunteers then return every two weeks to do capacity and awareness-building activities on urban agriculture, planting and harvesting, nutrition, food security, food preparation, and the power that food has to bring people together and build community. .
People can join Tacofino Gastown’s Taco Tuesday via a $30 charitable donation or make it a date night (for two people) with a $50 donation.
“Supporters of Growing Chefs initiatives will directly equip kids with the powerful knowledge they can grow food themselves and create great food memories, and encourage curiosity and exploration about local food systems,” Jaydeen Williams, Growing Chefs’ co-executive director of communications and engagement, says in a release.
From its 2009 start out of a truck Tofino at the back of the Live to Surf parking lot as Tacofino Cantina, Tacofino has expanded to include a fleet of roaming food trucks and seven brick-and-mortar restaurants in Vancouver and Victoria.
“Having volunteered for Growing Chefs in the past, I was able to see the direct impact their programs have had on children, and the community,” says Tacofino managing partner Gino Di Domenico. “What Jaydeen, and the team at Growing Chefs are doing is not only inspiring but something we at Tacofino are all very proud to support.”
All funds raised at Taco Tuesday will be added to Turnip The Heat’s annual winter fundraising campaign. This year, the goal is to raise $20,000, which will go toward Growing Chefs’ edible education programming and initiatives.
All donors up to December 31 will be recognized by various donation levels according to the Scoville Scale (the one that measures the intensity of peppers). If people are unable to attend Taco Tuesday but are hoping to find their Scoville Scale rating, they can donate directly to the Growing Chefs campaign online.
This year, GivingTuesday Canada is celebrating its 10th anniversary, with thousands of partner organizations and millions of Canadians expected to take part. So far, more than 7,500 Canadian charities, businesses, and community groups have used GivingTuesday to rally generosity and help make the world a better place in countless ways. Around the globe there are official GivingTuesday movements in more than 80 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Slovenia, Tanzania, the UK, and more.
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