Austin restaurants team up for 'Dine with Florida' hurricane relief fundraiser

AUSTIN, Texas — More than 20 Austin restaurants will be donating a portion of their proceeds this weekend to help with food and water relief in Florida and other states affected by hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Austin food blogger Austin Food Adventures is organizing the “Dine with Florida” initiative, which will happen at participating restaurants on Saturday, Oct. 19.

The restaurants will be donating directly to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit helping provide meals and support in the southeast.

Austin Food Adventures has hosted similar events in the past, including “Dine with Maui,” which helped raise over $51,000 for the Maui Food Bank, and “Dine with Ukraine,” which helped raise more than $43,000 in donations.

Restaurants participating in the “Dine with Florida” initiative will donating between 5% and 10% of profits for the day.

“I was inspired after seeing numerous videos of the flood destruction in Florida on special media and various news outlets,” Amanda Wong with Austin Food Adventures told KVUE. “I thought about how fortunate we are to be in an area not touched by hurricanes, and I have quite a few followers with family in Florida so wanted to help out. I’ve been meaning to do a charity for WCK for quite some time – they help out in various initiatives I support in different areas like Palestine, Israel, Ukraine and more. They’re currently in southeast U.S. helping out with the hurricane victims, and I know any leftover funds or any additional will go to their other areas of help as well.”