This year’s Restaurant Week, held Aug. 8 – 21, raised $16,322 from participating restaurants and sponsors. The money raised goes into an endowed fund, now totaling $159,428, to support culinary education in Grand Rapids through Grand Rapids Community College.
Eighty participating restaurants and six event sponsors helped contribute to the fund this year, according to Doug Small, president & CEO of Experience GR. The participating restaurants donated $1 for each Restaurant Week meal sold at their establishments.
Dr. Kathryn Mullins, VP of College Advancement & GRCC Foundation executive director, and Small presented scholarships to eight students who each received $1,000 from the endowed fund to help support their continuing studies in GRCC’s Secchia Institute for Culinary Education (SICE) program. This year marks more students than ever before receiving scholarships from the fund.
This is the eighth year that students have been awarded scholarship money from the SICE Student Scholarship endowed fund established by Restaurant Week GR in 2010. Forty students have been awarded scholarships from 2011 – 2018.
Amanda Barnett, a 2017 award recipient of the Restaurant Week GR SICE scholarship, said her scholarship has helped her concentrate more on her studies because she’s been able to cut back on the hours she needs to work each week.
“One thing I always think is, ‘I am here to learn, and I want to remember everything I am learning.’ That is so hard to do when you feel busy and tired. Scholarships truly do help me, and many other students, to work fewer hours and focus more on school.”
The 10th anniversary of Restaurant Week GR will be held from August 7 – 18, 2019.
*Photos courtesy of Restaurant Week
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