A Taste For Life fundraiser is up and running this month to help raise money for HIV/AIDS resources for ARCH.
ARCH said this is their biggest fundraiser of the year which helps efforts from ARCH to support individuals in the community who live with HIV.
Taste For Life is a national campaign and many HIV organizations participate. In previous years ARCH would host a day at the end of April where patrons would go to participating restaurants to dine in and ARCH would provide educational resources about HIV. The participating restaurants would donate 25 per cent of their earnings from patrons for fundraising.
“It was a really great way to engage the community, come out and enjoy food together and really celebrate being a community. So there was a huge loss when that happened,” said Sonia Preisler, fund development coordinator for ARCH.
ARCH had to pivot the way they ran the fundraiser because of pandemic restrictions with some members of the community not feeling comfortable eating out.
This is the second year they have changed fundraising methods and are using golden tickets to raise money. With a purchase of a $40 ticket one will receive a $10 gift card to a participating restaurant. With a $100 golden ticket one will receive a $30 gift card.
With each golden ticket purchased, folks will be entered in the Taste for Life draw for a chance to win prizes.
“There’s been so much stuff that we’ve sort of had to navigate and shift in order to support our communities,” said Preisler.
ARCH said they still wanted to get people excited about restaurants and their organization even with the change in how the fundraiser worked.
Gift cards to restaurants are given at random and can be used for dine-in eating or takeout. Some of the participating restaurants include; Atmosphere Cafe, the Wooly, Crafty Ramen and Aberfoyle Mill.
Last year some people who donated decided to give back their gift cards to ARCH so their clients could use them instead.
ARCH’s goal is to raise $30,000 by April 27 and they have already raised $16,000. In 2021 they raised around $20,000 and sold $4,000 in gift cards from participating restaurants of the fundraiser.
ARCH said the fundraising campaign gives people a way to support both HIV community health and local restaurants.
