Ithaca Rotary members support businesses with new program

Last month, the Rotary Club of Ithaca created “Tastes of Gorges,” a socially connected and safely distanced supper club that helps to support local restaurant owners and staff.

Husband and wife Rotarians Dennis Gray and Maricelis Acevedo were the driving forces behind the program’s foundation, and they said the idea started with another Rotary project they helped inspire a few years ago, the Dozen Dinner Draw.

“We go in and ask the different restaurants and some other businesses in our area to support the raffle by providing gift certificates for their restaurants or their winery or cidery,” Acevedo said. “We have been very successful raising funds for national projects over the last three years.”

The Dozen Dinner Draw (DDD) is Rotary’s largest single fundraiser, with many area businesses participating. But COVID-19 meant that those same businesses were now struggling to make ends meet. Following Rotary’s motto of “service above self,” Rotarians wanted to find a way to help these businesses who had helped them so many times before.

“When we reached out to them, they right away say yes,” Acevedo said. “And it was our time to say, ‘How can I help you? How can I pay it back?’”

Acevedo said it was fellow Rotarian Nancy Potter who proposed doing something that other states have done – dinner clubs.

“We kept thinking about it, and Tastes of Gorges was born,” Acevedo said.

Gray explained that much of the mentality behind the program’s foundation was to help out an industry hit especially hard by COVID-19.

“There’s predicted that a large amount of restaurants are going to go out of business if they can’t get through, and there’s no real great support programs for them,” Gray said. “The other thing for us is probably one of the hardest hit people are the people that work for the restaurants because generally, they’re not particularly highly paid, and they work for tips. Most of them don’t have medical care. So, that was kind of what drove us in that direction, was to see if we could help out that way.”

For Tastes of Gorges, the Ithaca Rotary selected a different local restaurant each week. Rotarians and community members ordered throughout the week from that restaurant for takeout or delivery on that Friday, with those collective orders helping to bring a spike in sales.

“The idea is to show our support for a different DDD sponsor each week,” said Club Secretary Joanne Lamoureux in a recent press release. “Even though many of these restaurants have been offering curbside meals-to-go for several weeks, their business is nowhere near pre-COVID levels.”

The first restaurant, chosen for Friday, May 15, was downtown’s Coltivare, which, prior to mid-March, had also hosted the club’s weekly luncheon meetings and played a key role in the Dozen Dinner Draw and other fundraisers.

“I feel very honored that they would think to reach out to us first, especially not being a super popular place that’s known for delivery foods,” said Jason Sidle, director of operations at Coltivare. “I’m super thankful, also, that they would be willing to help us out and then super thankful to the community that they were willing to hear what everybody was saying and were willing to support the Rotary and then therefore support us as well.”

Acevedo said Rotarians showed up in great numbers for Tastes of Gorges that week, encouraging the program to continue. So, the next week featured the Country Club of Ithaca, another big Rotary supporter. And its most recent beneficiary was the Gateway Mediterranean Bistro and Grill.

Rotary Membership Chair Ron Provus, who described himself as the “glue” in the Tastes of Gorges program thanks to his extensive knowledge of and involvement in the hospitality industry, said these and other area restaurants appreciate Rotary’s efforts.

“Now, maybe there’s only three people working there, five people working there, so they haven’t had a chance to think about this,” Provus said. “So, when I asked them if they would participate in this program Friday night and told them about what we were doing, it’s been extremely positive.”

Provus added that this program also helps bring a sense of normalcy to area residents.

“It’s important for people to be able to do some things like they’ve done in the past,” he said. “Most people are naturally very familiar with ways to pick up food or have it delivered in their store, just sitting at home.”

Tastes of Gorges is set to continue well into the future, Acevedo said, for as long as area restaurants could use the boost.

“We would like to reach as many restaurants as possible,” she said. “We want the community to be more aware of the program and start supporting it even more. We would love to see a community effort where we can say that we are supporting our local economy in a way that is accessible to most.”

Continuing the program will help the community’s diverse hospitality and restaurant options endure through and long after this pandemic is over, Acevedo said.

“This is the time to ensure that they have as much support as they can so that they can continue to serve our communities, to have a livelihood for themselves, their staff, their families and also, making sure that when we’re ready to come back, we can continue to enjoy that amazing culinary diversity that we have in our area,” she said. “A lot of these restaurants really support so many activities in our community, and they’re essential for the well-being of our community.”

Sidle said he and others admire Rotary’s effort, especially considering that many Rotarians are over 50, putting them in the vulnerable age range for increased COVID-19 susceptibility.

“They’re still willing to be out and they’re still willing to help other people even though they may be possibly putting themselves in danger,” he said. “They’re still willing to do that. And I think it’s a great example to the community that there’s people out there doing that.”

In addition to these efforts, the Ithaca Rotary has created its Pandemic Response Group, spearheaded by Lamoureux, which has identified food security as a primary community-wide need in the wake of COVID-19. For more information on this and other efforts, visit ithacarotary.com.

Dozens of restaurants have supported Rotary’s Dozen Dinner Draw fundraiser since 2018. A full list can be found at www.rotarydozendinnerdraw.org.