News & Events

Brentano’s Meals for Heroes a Smashing Success

04.23.2020

Hosted by Brentano, Savory Salads, and Binge Worthy Bites, Meals for Heroes created a unique opportunity to give back. Now more than ever, healthcare workers across the globe are risking their lives to protect our families. Meals for Heroes was created to help bring joy and alleviate the need for our healthcare workers to worry about additional daily tasks other than fighting this virus on the front lines. Local restaurant, Savory Salads created tailored, healthy meals to hospitals in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs as a means to say thank you to our healthcare heroes. Not only does Meals for Heroes provide healthy meal options for healthcare workers who are unable to work from home, but it also supports initiatives to shop small and local to support family-owned companies during these unique times.



The interactive virtual cooking show featured Brentano staff, including National East Coast Sales Manager, Daniel Ortiz, Global VP of Sales and Marketing Paul Templeman-Holmes and Marketing and PR Manager, Laura Dzugan. Savory Salads head chef, Stephanie Dzugan, and talented food blogger, Callie Quinn from Binge Worthy Bites, provided the cooking entertainment. Together they shared the recipe for their one of a kind, Huli Huli Chicken with fried rice and a side salad. Huli Huli Chicken is one of the delicious meals being delivered to healthcare workers in our area! Stephanie and Laura are sister-in-law’s who designed the evening together to benefit healthcare workers in need.

Throughout the evening’s cooking demonstration, attendees had access to a donation link for Meals for Heroes. Interested parties were able to donate meals for local healthcare heroes. Meals for Heroes are $10 per meal, and your donation goes directly to the food cost associated with providing a local healthcare hero a meal during their shift. Before the cooking demonstration, Meals for Heroes had delivered 350+ meals to healthcare workers in our area.

Fast forward, 60 minutes into the evening, Brentano is thrilled to announce that the Chicago Dharma Drum Buddhist Association has donated $50,000 to Meals for Heroes, a total of 5,000 meals! The evening ended on a high note with a total of $51,160 being raised, 5,116 meals to be provided for local healthcare heroes on the front lines. In these unprecedented times, Meals for Heroes provided the dose of ‘good news’ we all needed.

Huli Huli Chicken Recipe