San Diego Restaurant Week is back for its 20th year and there are more than 200 restaurants and breweries participating.
“San Diego Restaurant Week not only celebrates the amazing culinary community we have in San Diego, but this year it's an opportunity for meals to give back,” said Dana Williams, director of marketing & communications at Feeding San Diego.
Chef Works, a Poway-based company, will donate up to $10,000 to Feeding San Diego to help their year-round hunger relief and food rescue programs.
“Chef Works has participated with Feeding San Diego, for every meal, for every seat, $2.00 per meal will be donated to Feeding San Diego while you’re dining and enjoying this spring at your favorite local restaurants or restaurants you've never been to,” said Sara Arjmand, chair of San Diego Restaurant Week.
Williams says that $10,000 translates into about 20,000 meals for people facing hunger in San Diego County.
“Obviously we want to support anything in our backyard that has to do with restaurants and food and culinary and Feeding San Diego was a natural partnership for us to get to be involved in,” said Aaron Brown of Chef Works.
Feeding San Diego officials said the help comes at a critical time because they are seeing an increase in demand for services. The pandemic, skyrocketing inflation and expiring state support are to blame.
One of the participating restaurants is Valle in Oceanside.
“For me as a chef and restaurateur, it’s really important to be part of this type of event because it's being part of the community,” said Valle’s Executive Chef Roberto Alcocer
San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert also turned out to support the chance for local restaurants to shine and fight hunger.
“We always have to take care of our neighbors in need," Von Wilpert said. "There are hundreds of families every day in San Diego who are in need of food, may not know what they're going to have for dinner and so that's why this partnership is so important."
San Diego Restaurant week runs from March 26 through April 2.
