Fabulous dinner with wine and extras at Michael Mina last night to raise $$$ for the San Francisco Food Bank.

The fundraiser was sponsored and arranged by Epicurious.com.

Tanya Steel, editor-in-chief at epicurious.com, whose idea it was to have epicurious.com help raise money for food programs for children by raising money for America's Second Harvest and local affiliate programs (Wine. Dine. Donate. Epicurious.com Launches an On- And Offline Program to Benefit America’s Hungry Children [PDF]), flew into town from New York for dinner.

Steel wandered around before dinner introducing herself to people and chatting. Mina closed the restaurant for the event and was on hand to supervise the dishing of foods and pouring of drinks.

Delish.

We'll have to go back some time to see what it's like in real time.

Christopher Wiley, San Francisco Food Bank's Director of Development, AKA the guy who spends his days asking people for money for the food bank, was at our table and entertained us with stories of his Boston terriers and what it was like asking people for money for a living. Good cause, easy to ask, he said. We exchanged public transit stories and the like. (We'd taken the 30 over to Union Square for dinner and caught the 45 back. I carried a purse (zounds!) to stash my walking shoes in after I switched to dress shoes in the lobby of the St. Francis.)

Also at our table was an engaging woman who'd pulled together a large donation for the food bank during the annual Food From The Bar food drive ("the bar" being the Bar Association of San Francisco). Like us, she was a food bank supporter who'd never eaten at Michael Mina. The final four at our table were two couples who were friends and foodies from out of town (Foster City and Clayton). They were there to eat Michael Mina's food and if the event was for a good cause, all the better.

The restaurant was pretty much sold out. There may have been a handful of seats that were vacant, but that was it.

Paul Ash, executive director of the SFFB, gave an overview of what the Food Bank does, the tons of food (26 mil pounds!) it distributes every year, the number of food pantries it supplies, the programs it runs &c. Amazing organization.

Get involved. Donate food. Donate dollars. Volunteer. Support your local food bank if you're not a resident of the city. If you are resident, support these guys and come to San Francisco's Comedy Day 2006: Sunday, October 1 Noon - 5 pm. Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park. Five hours. Thirty comedy performers. (PG-13). This year's event is in partnership with the Food Bank. Bring some cash to donate.

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:57 PM|| |