The Charlottesville 29

Here’s your chance to enjoy your favorite Charlottesville restaurant like you’ve never enjoyed it before. McGuireWoods is pleased to present The Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions in support of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

Hunger is a stubborn problem – globally, nationally and regionally. Here in the Charlottesville area, it still impacts as many as one in ten people, and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank helps by feeding an average of 118,000 per month. But, it cannot continue to do this without the support of the community.

With The Charlottesville 29 Restaurant Auctions, the restaurants of The Charlottesville 29 are coming together to help the area’s hungry by creating signature, once-in-lifetime experiences and offering them to whoever pledges the highest donation to the food bank. The restaurants are donating all of the food and beverage, and McGuireWoods is covering residual expenses, so every dollar of the winning bids will go directly to the food bank. And, thanks to the efficiency of the food bank, each dollar is enough to provide four meals to the area’s hungry, meaning the auction winners’ meals will result in thousands more meals for the area’s hungry.

While the signature experiences vary from one restaurant to another, what they all share is the opportunity to enjoy a top area restaurant in a way you’ve never enjoyed it before. Imagine a multi-course feast of a restaurant chef’s favorite dishes for a large group of friends, prepared and served by the chef himself, paired with wines. Or, a hands-on group cooking demonstration followed by a custom-prepared meal at your favorite restaurant, all while having the whole place to yourself.

Beginning May 23, every day we will announce a new online auction of a signature experience at a restaurant of The Charlottesville 29, and each auction will last 30 days. The auctions winners will make a donation to the food bank in the amount of their winning bid, and then enjoy their own unforgettable, all-inclusive restaurant experience at a mutually convenient time with the restaurant.

UPDATE: The Charlottesville 29 Auctions are now complete. The auctions created more than 315,000 meals for the area’s hungry. A list of the winning bids for each auction is here.  Thank you to the restaurants, vendors, and donors for their extraordinary generosity and support of the area’s hungry.