Buffalo's penchant for charitable giving combines with its love for food once again today with the annual "Dining Out for Life" event. The proceeds of participating restaurants benefit the multiple services provided by Buffalo's Evergreen Health.
Over 90 restaurants will offer a share of their proceeds today to benefit Evergreen Health.
"We know that Western New York is a foodie city with over a thousand restaurants, so having almost ten percent of our restaurant population participate in a fundraiser like this, where they are giving their profits right back to a charity, it's something special," said Christopher Reybrouck, Director of Development for Evergreen Health.
While today's event is revolves around dining out, it also offers an opportunity to highlight the growth of what was originally a grassroots effort to combat HIV/AIDS.
"Evergreen Health has gone through a huge transformation over the past 30 years, starting out as the Buffalo Aids Task Force," Reybrouck explained.
Now, Evergreen's services target a variety of community issues. In August, they opened the Evergreen Lofts, a 56-unit apartment building that looks to assist the homeless. Their syringe-exchange program helped to safely dispose of 600,000 used-needles last year, making it one of the largest such programs in New York State.
"There is a still very much a need for us to continue to grow, continue to provide additional housing, continue to make sure that people know that they do not be HIV positive to come receive our specialty care."
