Community Harvest Winds Down at Columbia

This month, the Columbia restaurant is supporting local charities with its annual Community Harvest program. Through the program – now in its fourteenth year – the Columbia is donating five percent of all patrons’ lunch and dinner checks – to area charities.

When dining at the Columbia, each guest is presented with a Community Harvest flyer that lists charities local to each restaurant location. For the Ybor City and downtown locations, the Columbia is donating to eighteen area nonprofits.

 The list of Tampa charities includes:

• 1 Voice – provides family support programs for children with cancer;

• Alpha House – a residential maternity home serving mothers and babies in crisis;

• Humane Society – a shelter and adoption center for homeless animals;

• Joshua House – a therapeutic residential shelter for abused or abandoned children;

• Lifepath Hospice – provides care to people affected by end-of-life issues;

•  Operation Helping Hand – assists active duty military that are wounded or injured.

“We started this program in 1998 as a way to help many of the worthy non-profit groups that are so important to our communities,” said restaurant president Richard Gonzmart.

 “We thought the best way to do this was by letting our customers get involved in selecting the organizations," Gonzmart said. "The process is simple.”

Patrons check off one of the charitable organizations listed on the flyer that they would like the restaurant to support.

“We do the rest,” said Gonzmart.

Over the past thirteen years, the Community Harvest has raised nearly $1.2 million for non-profit organizations throughout Florida.

For a complete list of participating charities, visit http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/news_events.asp.

The Community Harvest program is taking place at all seven Columbia Restaurants: Ybor City, Sarasota, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, Clearwater Beach, and Celebration. The new Columbia Café, part of the Tampa History Museum along the Riverwalk, is also participating in the program.

For more information, visit www.columbiarestaurant.com.