Food for ‘Life’

Mandie Craven
Staff Writer
April 8, 2004, Page 2

Eating out is just not for pleasure anymore. The Nebraska AIDS Project (N.A.P.) is hosting their annual “Dining Out for Life” fundraising event Tuesday. Anyone can go to participating area restaurants, and have a percentage of their meal donated to The Nebraska AIDS Project.
“I think it’s for a great cause”, said volunteer Ashlee Butts. “People can eat good food, and then donate a percent of their meal to the organization.”
Participating restaurants in Lincoln and Omaha will be offering 25-100 % of their breakfast, lunch or dinner bills to be donated.
“Last year across the country, ‘Dining Out for Life’ raised over $2 million”, Butts said. “All that money went directly into the programs, and to our clients.”
Customers at these restaurants may also make a cash donation, which can enter their name into a raffle. Raffle prizes include, but are not limited to: plane tickets, tickets to the symphony, etc.
“Dining Out for Life” is one of the many events that NAP organizes throughout the year. Other programs include: “AIDS walk Nebraska”, “Night of a Thousand Stars” and an art event, which features over 60 artists.
N.A.P. organizes food pantries for clients and their families. The organization has come to the Doane campus for free and confidential HIV/AIDS testing.
For more information about “Dining Out for Life” or The Nebraska AIDS Project, log on to www.nap.org or contact Ashlee Butts at: abutts@doane.edu.
“HIV/AIDS is a very scary thing”, Butts said. “The best thing a person can do is to learn about it and protect themself from it.”