A Night To Remember
And just like that, the Hungry Games 4.0 is in the books. What an amazing and positive night of food, fun and purpose it was!
As one guest described it. "It was so good to see your event last night and oh boy what an event it was. I loved the time that I spent over there. So much positivity and goodwill for such a noble cause." I think this speaks to the essence of what we hoped to provide for our guests. Yes, it was our annual fundraiser but more than being about us, we wanted it to be about you, our guests and supporters. After all, Bracken’s Kitchen ultimately exists for 1 reason and 1 reason only, to help and support people, or as one person puts it, to pour love into a world that needs it so badly.
As we planned The Hungry Games 4.0 we had a lot of angst and concern about the Covid situation and ensuring that we do the right thing. After considering all the information we moved forward as safely as possible. With more space to spread out the event, less guests, less vendors and lots of safety protocols we all enjoyed what turned out to be an amazing evening.
With all our country has been through since our last event 2 years ago, I think I can speak for everyone when I say it was so nice to be back together for an evening of pure joy. I didn’t hear a single complaint from anyone as I believe everyone was so very happy to just be able to come together for an enjoyable evening of purpose. Of course, our guest chefs and all of their amazing dishes had a little something to do with everyone’s happiness!
We were blessed to have Dean Kim from OC Baking Company, Tarit Tanjasari from Crema Bakery & Café, Shelly Register from A Market, Andrew Gruel from Slapfish, Allan Tea from Cali Dumpling Company, Peter Petro from Bosscat Kitchen, Rich Mead from Farmhouse @ Rogers Garden, Greg Daniels from Harley Laguna, Sandro Nardone from Bello by Sandro Nardone and our Hungry Games 4.0 Champions Michael & Dave Rossi from their up-and-coming restaurant in Orange.
With all their amazing food, a great list of silent and live auction items and “Pinch Me” band playing, the night was perfect.
It really was a special night made that much more by all of our amazing volunteers and guests who came together for a great evening. I hope a few of the pictures shared here and more that will be uploaded to our website will help to tell the story of the evening.
As I looked back over the 2 years since our last Hungry Games event it is hard to believe that we’ve rescued over 2 million pounds of food and provided over 3.25 million meals for our friends and neighbors in need. These types of numbers were part of our 5-year plan, not an 18-month covid plan and for that we are very grateful that we are able to be used in such positive ways.
As we look ahead, we’re keeping our eyes focused on a simple fact. Every major metropolitan area in America has 3 things in common as it pertains to our work. Hunger, poverty and food waste can be found all across America. Our Trio of Services focuses on Food Waste, Food Insecurity and Culinary Training and with that we are working to perfect our model to be able to share it with the world. We have already shown that our programs work conceptually and operationally and we’re now working to streamline our processes to make it more efficient and impactful.
As we look at the future, our own expansion, and how we can share our model with partners across the country we realize that none of this would be possible without you, our friends and supporters. And for that we are so very grateful. Thank you all so very much for all that you have done to support our work to help ensure that nobody goes to bed hungry in our communities.