From Nashville with Love…
A Benefit for The Visitation Hospital Foundation, Haiti
Sunday March 14th from 5 to 8 at the Nashville Farmer’s Market
Hi ya’ll, My name is Andy Hunter and I am the Chef of the Acorn restaurant. When I was in High school, I was fortunate enough to take a trip down to Haiti with a group of other students from here in Nashville. We went to help build a school for an orphanage that had been built by students from Nashville, about 20 years before. The trip changed my life and after the recent earthquake I have been trying to figure out a way that I could do something to help the people in Haiti. The best thing I could figure out is to reach out to the Nashville restaurant, wine, and arts community and see if we could all get together and raise some money. The folks at the Farmer’s Market have agreed to host the event, so here goes…
On Sunday March 14th we will be holding a charity benefit at the Nashville Farmer’s Market with all proceeds going to the Visitation Hospital Foundation. The event will be a tasting featuring local Chefs, Restaurants and Vineyards; as well as a silent auction. We are reaching out to local businesses and asking them for their support in making this event a great success.
Visitation Hospital Foundation is a Nashville-based 501 (c)(3) organization with a mission to provide health care and health education for the people of Haiti. Proceeds from the event will be used by the Foundation to maintain clinic operations for the 266,000 people of Haiti, who currently live without access to medical care. During normal times, the cost of running the clinic is on average $26,000 per month, so they depend on events such as these to help with the expenses. At this time, we also need additional support and aid for disaster relief.
-Chefs and Restaurants: We are hoping to get between 25 and 30 restaurants to participate in our tasting event. We will provide each restaurant with a table, linens, plates and eating utensils. We are asking you for between 200 and 300 small tasting portions. There is very little cooking equipment at the Market House so we ask that you bring anything you need to prepare your dish. We hope to have plenty of volunteers to help out, but I am also looking at this as a chance for the community of Nashville Chefs to get together for the evening. We are working with the farmer’s at the market to put together a list of items they will be willing to provide at a discounted cost. If you don’t want to participate in the tasting event but would like to donate to the silent auction please let us know. We also ask, participating or not, you help us get the word out about this event.
-Alcohol Distributors/Suppliers: We are in the process of getting a Special Event permit so that we can serve alcohol at the event and would like to have a cash bar. Any donations of liquor or wine would be greatly appreciated. We would also love the opportunity to add some wines to the silent auction.
-Silent Auction Donors: We are seeking donations for our silent auction. We are looking for items valued more than $25 when possible. Items that are especially sellable are massages, vacation homes, airline tickets (miles from your airline), sports tickets, theatre /symphony tickets, services (accounting, PR, computer help, etc.), bed & breakfast stays. (anything connected with music and sports stars are great!) Please provide the value of items donated along with name/address/phone number of donor.
Visitation Hospital is a non profit organization and we will be happy to provide a donor letter and their tax number to all who participate. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for additional information, and thanks in advance for whatever support you can offer. I can be reached at 615.613.3523 or by email at fromnashvillewithlove@gmail.com .
Sincerely,
Andrew Hunter, Chef
The Acorn Restaurant