Let your taste buds do the giving while you support Project Return, Inc. by dining at any Columbia Restaurant during the month of September for lunch or dinner during the 12th Annual Columbia Restaurant Community Harvest program.
Through this program, Columbia Restaurant donates 5% of all guests’ lunch and dinner checks to the charitable organization (Project Return, Inc.) chosen by their customers during the entire month of September. The Community Harvest will be in effect at the Columbia Restaurants in Tampa’s Ybor City, Sarasota, St. Augustine, The Pier in St. Petersburg, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach, Central Florida’s Town of Celebration, and at the new Columbia Café in the Tampa Bay History Center in Downtown Tampa. All Columbia Restaurants are open 7-days a week for lunch and dinner. Detailed locations and hours of operation.
Over the past eleven years, the Columbia Restaurant Community Harvest has donated over $923,000 to over 100 non-profit organizations throughout Florida.
“More than ever we are looking forward to helping out as many non-profit groups as possible in our local communities, during our 12th Annual Columbia Restaurant Community Harvest during this tough economic climate,” said Richard Gonzmart, 4th generation family member and president of the Columbia Restaurant.
“The donations that these non-profit groups in the Columbia Community Harvest will receive are extremely important this year, since so many people are hurting from the economy, and donations to non-profit groups are down, their help is being called upon now more then ever,” Gonzmart said.
“We started this program in 1998 as a way of contributing to the many non-profit groups that are so important to our communities,” noted Richard Gonzmart. “We thought the best way to do this was by letting our customers get involved in selecting the organizations. The process is simple. They just put a check mark next to the name of one of the charitable organizations listed on the form we provide to them, or they can write in the name of their favorite charity, and turn it in to their server. We do the rest,” explained Gonzmart.
The original Columbia Restaurant was founded in 1905 in Ybor City and is Florida’s oldest restaurant. Locations include the flagship restaurant in Tampa’s historic Ybor City, St. Armands Circle in Sarasota, the historic district in St. Augustine, The Pier in St. Petersburg, Sand Key in Clearwater Beach, Central Florida’s town of Celebration, and the Columbia Café at the Tampa Bay History Center. All Columbia Restaurants are owned and operated by the Gonzmart family, fourth and fifth generation members of the founding family.
Contact: Natalie Mitchels, Project Return, Inc. at 813-990-8981 ext. 3, or via email at nmitchels@projectreturn.org
Contact: Angela Geml at 813-248-3000 ext. 17, or via email at a.geml@columbiarestaurant.com
