Sept. 10: NFL's Regular-Season Play Kicks Off With Cleveland Browns Taste of the NFL Celebrity Dinner

This week marks the first official week of the NFL's 2007-08 season. To help kick it off, next Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, the Cleveland Browns will host their annual Taste of the NFL [TNFL] Celebrity Dinner to raise money for the Cleveland Foodbank, which serves as a clearinghouse for donated and rescued food in the entire Cleveland area.

As we reported last January ["Cuisine Concepts at Heart of Taste of the NFL -- AKA 'Super Bowl Party...With a Purpose' -- to Tackle Hunger in America"], GoodBiz113 profilee Cuisine Concepts launched TNFL in 1992, when Minneapolis hosted Super Bowl XXVI.

Since then, the far-reaching fundraising initiative has stretched to NFL cities from coast to coast, with anuual TNFL dinners held on the eve of Super Bowl, in the host city. Throughout the year, several NFL teams also sponsor local celebrity dinners to benefit area not-for-profit groups that serve hungry and/or homeless people.

TNFL events feature the "best of the gridiron and the griddle." They provide opportunities for premier restaurants to showcase their specialties, as well as bring NFL alumni, players, coaches, team owners and civic-minded celebrities, business leaders and citizens together to help support local foodshelves.

This year's Cleveland Browns TNFL event will be held in the spectacular City View Club Lounge, in Cleveland Browns Stadium, and features a celebrity party, silent auction, wine and culinary tasting, and live entertainment provided by Run Avril Run.

Participating restaurants include:
* Blue Canyon Kitchen & Tavern
* Blue Point Grille
* Boulevard Blue
* The Cabin Club
* Delmonico's Steakhouse
* Downtown 140
* Epiq Bistro
* Fahrenheit
* Flying Fig
* John Q's Steakhouse
* Johnny's Downtown
* Levy Restaurants of the Cleveland Browns
* Metropolitan Café
* Momocho
* Moxie, the Restaurant
* One Walnut
* Paladar
* Pearl of the Orient
* Players on Madison
* Primo Vino
* Red, the Steakhouse
* Salmon Dave's Pacific Grille
* Sans Souci in The Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
* Table 45
* Three Birds
* Vivo Cleveland
* XO Prime Steaks

Monies raised from the event will go to Cleveland Foodbank, a member of America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network, which feeds America's hungry through a nationwide network of food banks and engages people in the fight to end hunger.

Cleveland Foodbank solicits donations from local and national food suppliers and manufacturers, and then distributes that food to hunger programs. In 2006, the organization distributed over 19.5 million pounds of food to more than 450 hunger programs -- which included area food pantries, hot meal programs, shelters, and other agencies, such as child-care centers and homes for the elderly. This was enough food for its member agencies to serve over 15 million meals to hungry individuals in the community.

Every dollar raised by the Cleveland Browns Taste of the NFL 2007 Celebrity Dinner will help Cleveland Foodbank provide enough food for four healthy meals. It is estimated that 50 percent of the recipients at Cleveland's local hunger centers are children and the elderly.

For tickets to the Cleveland Browns' TNFL event, phone 216.738.2046, or go online: https://www.clevelandfoodbank.org/events/tnfl.asp.

Taste of the NFL XVII will be held on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008, at the Phoenix Convention Center, on the eve of Super Bowl XLII. For information and tickets, go to: http://www.tasteofthenfl.com/.

Sources: America's Second Harvest, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Foodbank, Taste of the NFL
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