Life Sponsors Dining Out For Life; A Benefit for Open Hand

On Wednesday, April 9, Life University donated a sponsorship check to Open Hand, a community-based non profit organization addressing nutrition care. Open Hand provides healthy, home-delivered meals combined with nutrition education, counseling and therapy to their clients.

Life University’s donation will support Open Hand’s fundraising effort, Dining Out for Life 2008. This annual event unites tens of thousands of Metro-Atlantans to dine in more than 100 Atlanta restaurants. Each participating restaurant will donate a minimum of 20 percent of its revenue on Wednesday, April 23, to Open Hand.

This is the sixteenth consecutive year for the Dining Out for Life event. Contributing restaurants include: Redfish Creole Bistro, Alfredo's, Canoe, Souper Jenny, City Grill and many more.

Open Hand prepares and delivers more than 4,500 freshly cooked, nutritious meals to people in the metro-Atlanta area. According to Open Hand, their clients are homebound seniors, dependent children and persons with chronic, critical and terminal illnesses – 93 percent of whom live below the federal poverty level.

“Our success is due to our thousands of donors and the volunteers who are responsible for packaging and delivering meals,” said Susan Anderson, Director of Strategic Alliances. “Our kitchen can accommodate big volunteer groups – up to 100 people. Drivers begin delivering at 6 a.m. and each client receives one to three meals per day. Our success is driven by our volunteers.”

Open Hand’s volunteers include local student groups, sororities, Coca-Cola, AARP, AT&T, Georgia State, church organizations and many others.

For more information about Open Hand and a list of Dining Out for Life restaurants, visit www.projectopenhand.org.