Tavern Night for a Cause, a one-night-only charity dinner at Yarraville’s Eleni’s Kitchen + Bar in collaboration with social enterprise Yiayia Next Door, has sold out — and organisers have responded by opening an online raffle and donation drive so anyone can take part in raising $10,000 for food rescue charity SecondBite.
The dinner, to be held on Friday, June 19, sold out within days of being announced.
To meet demand and grow the fundraising total, organisers have launched an online raffle open to the public, with entries closing midnight Thursday, June 18.
Tickets are $5 for one entry or $20 for five, and every donation made through the campaign automatically converts to raffle entries.
Tavern Night is Eleni’s Kitchen‘s signature event format: a five-course Greek feast with live music, belly dancing and all the plate-smashing of a village panigyri. On Friday, June 19, the format becomes a fundraiser.
Raffle sales, public donations and a live auction on the night will all go to SecondBite, with auction items including Carlton Football Club signed merchandise.
Eleni’s Kitchen is also donating proceeds from ticket sales, on top of the $10,000 fundraising target.
The raffle features three prize bundles donated by the event partners and local Yarraville businesses.
The first-prize bundle is valued at over $800 and includes a Corporate Volunteering Kitchen Shift for two with SecondBite, a signed Yiayia Next Door cookbook and merchandise pack, a signed Eleni’s Kitchen cookbook with a $100 dining voucher, and vouchers from local businesses Andrews of Yarraville, Yarraville Blooms, Grill’d, Luxie Nails and The Greek Providore.
Second and third prize bundles include cookbooks, merchandise and vouchers.
The collaboration brings together three organisations built on the same idea: that food is how people and communities take care of each other. Yiayia Next Door began with a Greek grandmother passing home-cooked meals over the fence to two brothers grieving the loss of their mother to domestic violence.
SecondBite rescues surplus fresh food and redistributes it to community groups feeding people in need. And Eleni’s Kitchen carries the name and ethos of the owners’ grandmother, Yiayia Eleni, who opened Yarraville’s first Greek restaurant in 1971 and fed her community with warmth and generosity.
Daniel Mancuso, the co-founder of Yiayia Next Door, has collaborated with SecondBite previously and is a passionate supporter.
“I really love their mission of nothing going to waste, especially for me being a wog. You’d always have extra leftovers, whether you take it home to give to your family or friends,” Daniel says.
“I love the simplicity of the idea, and that they’re always giving back to the community. For me it was a no-brainer.”
He chose Eleni’s Kitchen for its food, hospitality and family story. “Even when I went to dinner there recently with my wife, the family were there, having a late lunch all together. It just has that family feel that I really love, and can relate to.”
For Eleftheria Amanatidis, who co-owns Eleni’s Kitchen with her sister Anatoli alongside Jimmy’s Deli and Cakes by Thierry, the collaboration continues a longstanding commitment to giving back that began during COVID-19, when the restaurant donated meals for people doing it tough.
“For me, this is about philotimo, the Greek concept of generosity that asks for nothing back,” Eleftheria says.
“This collaboration takes me back to the feeling I had when we donated meals during the pandemic. Everyone has their own struggle, and if I’m in a position to help someone, I want to do it.”
Donations can be made here.
