StrengthSouthFlorida.org

MIAMI’S HOTTEST CHEFS COOK TO FIGHT CHILDHOOD HUNGER IN SOUTH FLORIDA AND ACROSS AMERICA

With a passion to fight childhood hunger, Broward and South Palm Beach County’s hottest chefs, restaurants, and mixologists will gather for Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation®, the city’s premier culinary benefit. Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale will raise critical funds needed to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in South Florida and across the nation. This year’s event will be on Wednesday, June 25th at the Broward County Convention Center, 1950 Eisenhower Blvd., Fort Lauderdale from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM with a VIP and Grand Cru reception beginning at 6:00 PM.

More than 45 of the city’s finest chefs and restaurants will participate in the gastronomic event. Along with Event Chairwoman Zena Hawes and Chef Chairman Oliver Saucy of Café Maxx in Pompano Beach, participating restaurants will include top award winning restaurants and chefs from the two-county area, providing guests with the opportunity to enjoy the city’s finest foods paired with perfect wines.

In addition to fabulous food and drinks, the event will feature an exquisite auction with once in a lifetime items including rare and boutique wine lots, wine dinners, and sensational lifestyle lots, vacations and cruises.

Event General Admission tickets are $100.00. The VIP Chef Reception, offering a pre- event party with an opportunity to meet the chefs and savor hors d’oeuvres, champagne and martinis, is available at $150.00 per person, which includes general admission. A limited number of patrons may also reserve a $250 “Grand Cru” premium ticket, with prestige seating, vintage wines and special services. For tickets and information call 954- 574- 9170 or visit www.strengthsouthflorida.org.

“We’re honored to be part of this nationwide movement to end childhood hunger in America,” said Zena Hawes, Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale Chairwoman. “Taste of the Nation brings together the finest of our area’s culinary world, and helps the children in our community who suffer from hunger every day.”

Area charities that will benefit from this year’s event include Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton, the Daily Bread Food Bank serving Palm Beach, Broward, Dade and Monroe Counties, and the Broward County Children’s Services Council Million Meal Committee. Since 1988, Taste of the Nation has raised more than $70 million for organizations in the United States, Canada and abroad, including more than $ 1.8 Million in Broward and South Pam Beach Counties alone.

With more than 12 million children facing hunger in America, Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation works to end childhood hunger in the United States and abroad by ensuring that children and their families have reliable access to nutritious food, and by addressing the deeper causes of these conditions. Funds raised through Taste of the Nation events provide grants to organizations in the United States, Canada and abroad that work successfully to end childhood hunger.

“An end to childhood hunger in the United States is within reach,” said Bill Shore, Founder and Executive Director of Share Our Strength. “With all the participants in Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale sharing their strengths, we are creating more resources for the greater good of South Florida and our great nation.”

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale is nationally sponsored by American Express, Sysco, Food Network, Brown-Forman and S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, and is locally sponsored by Whole Foods, Aruba Tourism Board, The Nerdel Company and other generous individuals and businesses. One hundred percent of ticket sales help ensure no kid in America grows up hungry.

_{From left to right: Billy Shore, Kelly Murphy, George Stephanopoulos, Mike McCurry}

South Florida resident Kelly Murphy (second from left) joined (from left) Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength; George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC News “This Week”; and Mike McCurry, former press secretary to President Bill Clinton, at Share Our Strength’s 2008 Conference of Leaders in Washington, D.C. Murphy was one of the hundred volunteers from across the country invited to the nation’s capital to plan Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation events, scheduled in 50 U.S. cities beginning in March 2009.

Stephanopoulos provided his views on the 2008 presidential election and its potential impact on future hunger-related issues during his keynote address on Monday, October 20. McCurry serves on the board of directors of Share Our Strength, the national organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America.

President/General Manager of Panache A Classic Party Rentals Company, which is based in Pompano Beach, Murphy is also event co-chair of Taste of the Nation Ft. Lauderdale. Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, presented by American Express, is the nation’s premier culinary benefit that has raised more than $70 million toward ending childhood hunger. For more information, visit TasteOfTheNation.org.