AUSTIN, Texas — As people in Florida work to rebuild from the catastrophic Hurricanes Helene and Milton, some businesses in Austin are doing their part to help.
On Saturday, more than 20 restaurants participated in the "Dine with Florida" fundraiser. A portion of the proceeds made over the course of the day would be donated to the nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen, helping those impacted.
The back-to-back hurricanes, which formed less than two weeks apart from each other, devastated homes, businesses and people’s lives.
The effort is led by Austin Food Adventures, who have organized disaster relief fundraisers in the past such as "Dine with Maui," "Dine with Ukraine," and "Dine with Uvalde."
Mo Pittle, owner of Jewboy Burgers, said his business took part in the fundraiser to help children of Ukraine as well as victims of the Maui fire. So, when organizer Amanda Wong asked for his help with hurricane relief, Pittle was all for the cause.
Staff had "Dine with Florida" shirts, stickers and made noise on social media to let people know about what they were doing.
“There's very few situations in life these days where it feels like everybody wins and this is one of them,” said Pittle. “If we could have more of these, I think the world would be a better place.”
Pittle said the restaurant is donating 10% of its proceeds made Saturday.
Danny Blair, who owns Asado Taqueria on Burnet Road, also took part, and said his business was also donating 10%.
Blair also posted signs and made customers aware of the cause.
“It was devastating for a lot of people in Florida, and I'm from Houston - there's a lot of hurricanes that happen in Houston quite often, so I thought it'd be a good place to be a part of,” said Blair, “To help the people that are in need.”