Families in Need Enjoy Delicious Thanksgiving Dinner Provided by Top Chefs and Generous Volunteers

November 9, 2006

Contacts:
Ellen Lubell, The Children’s Aid Society – (w) 212-949-4938, (c) 917-854-6864
Emily Crossan, The Children’s Aid Society – (w) 917-286-1548, (c) 201-344-5742
Gladys Mouton DiStefano, Food and Beverage Association – (w) 212-521-6203

Food industry volunteers to cook and serve Thanksgiving meal for hundreds of children and families at annual Children’s Aid Society dinner in Harlem

When:
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Where:
The Children’s Aid Society
Dunlevy Milbank Community Center
14-32 West 118th Street, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues

Why:
The spirit of Thanksgiving will be on full display as chefs from some of New York’s finest hotels and restaurants team up with The Children’s Aid Society to provide a luscious Thanksgiving dinner for hundreds of New York’s disadvantaged children and their families.

Thanks to the generosity of the Food and Beverage Association of America, this is the 16th year that this special dinner is being served at the Dunlevy Milbank Center. Chef Wayne Whinna, Director of Food and Beverage at The Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, will head up the culinary efforts for the sixth year. Chef Wayne and his volunteers will cook more than 200 turkeys at 20 lbs. each, two 42 lb. turkeys, plus all the trimmings. For the 16th consecutive year, Gladys Mouton DiStefano, President of the Food and Beverage Association and Director of Food and Beverage at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, is organizing the dinner and coordinating all donations. Members and friends of The Food and Beverage Association donate all the food, decorations and table settings for the dinner, and serve the food.

Among the children and families celebrating at the dinner will be the homeless families who live at Children’s Aid’s Pelham Fritz Apartments (a homeless shelter for families) across the street from the Dunlevy Milbank Center; formerly homeless families who return for this special celebration; and hundreds of other families from the Harlem community served by the Dunlevy Milbank Center all year. A DJ will entertain diners during the meal and a raffle will distribute more turkeys to the families in attendance.