TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa Bay area restaurant is donating a percentage of its sales to local organizations that help people in our community, and restaurant goers get to choose which charity they want the restaurant to donate to.
Customers come in, enjoy a meal and when the check comes, you receive a ballot that allows you to choose one of the more than 60 local nonprofit organizations you want to donate to at no extra cost to you.
This is all a part of the Community Harvest program by Columbia Restaurants. For the month of September, all of the Columbia restaurants are donating 5% of the sales they get from each customer.
The restaurant's spokesperson said it is important that they give back to local organizations.
“They’re local to each of the communities. It’s Sarasota, obviously Tampa, St. Augustine, Celebration, and Sand Key. So, we try to make it local to the community because we want to help communities that help us,” said Michael Kilgore with Columbia Restaurant.
Some of the organizations that are on the list include Metropolitan Ministries, the Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay and the YMCA. They said they have raised about $3 million over the past 25 years and plan to continue giving back to local charities.
The proceeds go into Columbia Restaurant gift cards that charities can then use to reward their volunteers. One customer said programs like this are desperately needed, especially now.
“We all need to bounce back right now and times are tough. People are relying on some of these charities to get by,” said Michael Havrilka.
The Community Harvest program runs for the entire month of September.
