On Thursday, March 27th, thousands will fill their plates to fight AIDS.

Over 200 restaurants from Whistler to White Rock and throughout the valley will join the fight against AIDS by donating 25 percent of their food revenue from meals sold during this important event. All money raised will go directly to Friends For Life and A Loving Spoonful; Lower Mainland charities that provide support to local people living with HIV/AIDS. Last year, the event raised almost $180 000 for these organizations.

Of course we couldn’t put on an event of this size without a huge volunteer effort. This is a great opportunity for corporate teams and community groups to have fun and support two great causes.

Four great ways to get involved with Dining Out For Life:

Volunteers are needed in a few areas: Restaurant Ambassadors, Delivery Drivers and Money Counters.

Restaurant Ambassadors – 200 Restaurant Ambassadors are needed to chat briefly with the restaurant patrons on the night of the event, educate them about the event, hand out prize ballots, and in the process, maybe solicit some donations. Restaurant Ambassadors will receive a training session, so you’ll feel really comfortable as a volunteer. We’ll send you to your restaurant with the skills to succeed in raising funds for our organizations! There is a maximum of two Restaurant Ambassadors placed at each restaurant. Can your organization take on an entire block or street?!

Delivery Drivers: Individuals and teams of licensed drivers with access to an insured vehicle(s) are needed to deliver promotional material to our participating restaurants during the weeks of March 3rd and 10th; and to then retrieve the ballot boxes the night of, and if possible, the day after the event. Some drivers will have responsibility for a few outlying restaurants; some will hold responsibility for larger routes. Can your organization take on a few delivery routes? What about all of them?!

Money Counters: Bankers, accountants and other financial professionals would be excellent additions to our post-event donation counting. A minimum of 12 volunteers are needed, can your organization fill all these seats?

The fourth way to help with Dining Out For Life is to dine out! Make sure your friends and family dine out at a participating restaurant on Thursday, March 27th. Look for our ads, or check www.diningoutforlife.com for a list of restaurants to choose from.

Dining Out For Life sponsors

Proudly returning for a third year as our Title Sponsor is Wolf Blass wines, who will donate 75 cents from every bottle purchased in BC at restaurants AND liquor stores during the month of March.

Our Presenting Sponsors, helping us ‘spread the word’ about Dining Out For Life, are Global BC, The Vancouver Courier and Clear FM.

Gold Sponsors are The Vancouver Sun, News 1130, Mountain FM, TV Week, Jack FM, the Letter Shop and Stella Artois who will donate $1 from every sale in Dining Out For Life participating restaurants on March 27!

Finally, our Silver Sponsors, Westender and North Shore News. Our thanks to all of these tremendous organizations.

For information, or to apply

We would be happy to work with you to make it easy to recruit corporate or community teams to volunteer with Dining Out For Life. Just email doflvolunteer@yahoo.ca or call 604-722-6325 to get started!

About the Charities

Friends For Life offers support to people living with life-threatening illnesses, their families and support persons, too. Services provided free of charge to members include counselling, massage therapy, yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine and much more. They also serve three nutritious meals a week to about 100 members. All direct services are provided by community and professional volunteers. Friends For Life is open 7 days a week, 360 days per year. The majority of our funding comes from fundraising events such as Dining Out For Life, Art For Life and individual donations. Visit www.friendsforlife.ca for more information.

A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven charity that delivers free meals to men, women and children living with AIDS who have a medical need for nutritional support. Over 30% of our clients are women and their children. We have one prevention program that provides infant formula to HIV+ mothers so that they do not transmit the virus through breast milk to their babies (a one in four chance). Over half our clients are homebound and have their meals delivered by volunteer drivers. The rest, who are functionally homeless, receive our meals at a medical centre in the Downtown East Side. We receive less than 25% of our funding from government sources and raise the rest ourselves. Dining Out For Life is our single biggest fundraiser. Visit www.alovingspoonful.org for more information.

P.S. With your help we can make this year’s Dining Out For Life the biggest ever. Please contact us at doflvolunteer@yahoo.ca or call 604-722-6325 and get involved.