Dining Out for Life to benefit Vegetable Garden

Dining Out for Life to benefit vegetable garden
By Joyce Kryszak

The ninth annual Dining Out for Life is being held Tuesday in Buffalo and around the country. Nearly one hundred restaurants across Western New York will donate a portion of the proceeds they take in tomorrow.

This year the money will help improve nutrition for people with HIV-AIDS in Western New York.

Thanks to last year's Dining Out for Life, which raised nearly $90,000, there is a beautiful new Wellness Center at AIDS Community Services in Buffalo. The center provides counseling and a host of support services for people living with HIV-AIDS.

Now, ACS will be able to add another wellness program - vegetable gardening.

Workshops on herb gardening are already underway at the Wellness Center. And soon the staff will be working with clients to put in their own vegetable garden along a vacant strip of land out back.

Christopher Voltz is Director of Communications and Special Projects for ACS. He is also an avid gardener. It was his idea to put in the Hope flower garden at ACS. Now, he said they are expanding the therapeutic concept with a garden that will also improve clients' nutrition. He said HIV is a very nutrition-dependent disease.

"So, building on that whole gardening thats' beautification that makes people feel better - now we're taking that whole gardening component a step further and really teaching people important life skills," said Voltz.

He said because 90 percent of their clients live in poverty, most have never had a vegetable garden. Many living in the city have only limited access to fresh produce.

So, ACS also will teach them how to prepare the vegetables they grow. Lindsay Zasada is an administrative assistant at ACS and is one of the coordinators for the vegetable garden program. She said it will be very comprehensive.

"When the garden coqmes to fruit later in the summer, we're going to be having clients go out there, tending to it, watering it, but also picking the fruits and vegetables and rbinging them into the Wellness Center and preparing them for lunch," said Zasada.

And, if the harvest is bountiful, she said they will also send produce home with their clients. All proceeds raised in Western New York from Dining Out for Life benefit ACS.