DENVER — On Thursday, 180 restaurants donated 25% of a customer's bill to Project Angel Heart as part of the 29th year of Dining Out For Life.
The organization prepares and delivers medically tailored meals, at no cost, to severely ill Coloradans. One of the participating restaurants on Thursday was Steuben's in Uptown.
"All we have to do is be open," said Emily Biederman, COO of Secret Sauce Food, the company that owns the restaurants Steuben's and Ace.
Biederman said that they've participated in the fundraiser for decades, including back to when they owned the now-closed longtime Denver restaurant, Vesta Dripping Grill.
"And then when we opened Steuben's, and of course Ace, it was only natural that we would continue the tradition with these locations as well," she said.
The motivations to participate have both been professional and personal, she said.
"One is being in the food industry, being able to connect with other organizations, that their focus is providing food for people just like we do," Biederman said. "And then if you kind of move forward. Our former executive chef, Brandon Foster at Vesta, he actually left that position to go be the executive chef at Project Angel Heart for several years and made a wonderful impact there. He unfortunately has passed away since then, but we have continued that connection."
The organization said the event is still coming back from the pandemic, so their goal this year is to raise $300,000.
To that end, Biederman said that the pandemic was not only hard on the restaurant industry but on nonprofit partners, as well.
"And at the end of the day, we know that it also will generate more revenue," Biederman said. "It will bring in more people. We'll be busier today than maybe we normally are on a Thursday because people are coming in just for this. So it really is a win win on both sides."
To find a list of participating restaurants, click here.
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