from staff
Dozens of the area’s best chefs will cook for a cause Thursday during the 18th Annual Jacksonville Foodfight at the Crown Royal Touchdown Club East in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
This year’s event will bring together more than 45 of the First Coast’s top restaurants, caterers and beverage wholesalers for a friendly competition where partygoers are the biggest winners. The event has raised more than $800,000 to help fight hunger in Jacksonville over the last 17 years and organizers are looking to raise at least $50,000 this year. All of the proceeds benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Florida.
“Doing a good thing and having a good time is truly the theme of this great event,” said Eddie Fink, chairman of the Foodfight committee, which coordinates the event. “That goes for all who participate — vendors, volunteers and guests. The restaurants and beverage distributors do an incredible job knowing that 100 percent of the proceeds from the event go to the Second Harvest Food Bank to aid in the fight against hunger and food insecurity in our community.”
Tickets for the event are $50, which include tastes of dishes prepared by the top restaurant chefs in the city, along with beverages and live entertainment. In addition, a silent auction will be held during the event, along with a raffle that awards prizes such a 32-inch HDTV flat screen, a Jacksonville Jaguars Experience package, four one-day tickets to Walt Disney World, an iPod Nano, Chick-fil-A for a year and many others.
The Food Bank has already provided 1.8 million meals this year — 388,000 more meals than at this time a year ago. At this rate, the demand will require the agency to secure an additional 1.5 million pounds of food during the remainder of the year in order to meet the needs of people in the Jacksonville area.
For every $1 donated, Second Harvest is able to recover $53 worth of food for distribution to its 515 member agencies. If the Foodfight achieves its goal of $60,000 it will allow the Food Bank to secure more than $3 million worth of food for its clients.