Dallas Market Center Announces Summer Fundraising Campaign in Support of World Central Kitchen

Gift for Life announced that Dallas Market Center, in conjunction with select showrooms, will be hosting a summer fundraising campaign, “This Showroom Feeds Families,” to support World Central Kitchen (WCK) and its efforts to provide crisis-related hunger relief in Ukraine, the United States, and other locations.

“I am inspired by the creativity and generosity of our Market Center partners,” said Cole Daugherty, Gift for Life Chair and Senior Vice President of Exhibitor Marketing at Dallas Market Center. “Our goal is to raise over $30,000 for World Central Kitchen this June. Between our Retailer Excellence Awards fundraiser and Summer Market fundraiser, we already are well underway to surpass that target.”

Each participating showroom will have a custom program for fundraising during the June Total Home & Gift Market, June 22-28. Showrooms and participating brands will contribute via direct donations or $1 per-order donations. Buyers will participate via rounding-up per order, adding $1 per order, and/or direct donations via QR codes in the showrooms. Each showroom will have details available on how to help clearly posted within their showroom.

Participating showrooms include Cliff Price & Co. (TM 1800), Goetz Inc. (TM 2000), Ivystone (WTC 236), J Brandes (TM 1610), KBD Sales (TM 2038), NextGen Dallas (TM 1028), Nora Fleming (TM 2050), Park Hill (WTC 321), Patrick & Co. (TM 2927), Portico Collection (WTC 631) and Road Runners (TM 1743).

Generous direct donation support already has come from Creative CoOp (TM 2454) and OneCoast (WTC 265). To make a general donation towards the Dallas Market Center Summer Fundraising Campaign for WCK, visit: https://donate.wck.org/fundraiser/3910596.

Beyond these Dallas-based showroom campaigns, Gift for Life also is fundraising for World Kitchen in connection with the 71^st annual Retailer Excellence Awards, on June 22, 2022, at the Dallas Tower Club. During the event, Gift for Life will present its 2022 Industry Achievement Award to Warren Shoulberg, long time industry editor and retail reporter, in recognition of his overall excellence and contribution to the gift and home industry as a thought leader, standard-bearer and overall industry influencer.

Hosted by Gifts & Decorative Accessories, the Retailer Excellence Awards recognize excellence in seven retail awards categories, as well as the vendor and manufacturer’s rep of the year distinctions. Register at www.retailerexcellenceawards.com, and donate to World Central Kitchen in support of Warren at https://donate.wck.org/REA2022.

The Dallas Total Gift & Home Market runs June 22-28, 2022 at Dallas Market Center. For more information, visit https://dallasmarketcenter.com/.

World Central Kitchen is currently feeding families around the world in locations facing crisis. Those activities include Chefs for Ukraine, distributing nourishing food and fresh meals in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Germany; as well as hot meals in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX following gun violence; and feeding those impacted by natural disasters in Penambuco, Brazil; Southern Mexico; and Bangladesh.

To host a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen, click HERE or contact a member of the Gift for Life board.

About World Central Kitchen

Founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen (WCK) uses the power of food to nourish communities and strengthen economies in times of crisis and beyond. In 2020, with COVID-19 straining traditional food security safety nets like school feeding programs, city services and food banks, WCK pivoted to safely distribute individually packaged, fresh meals in communities that needed support and launched the Restaurants for the People program to scale nationwide. Fast forward to 2022 and the escalating crisis in Ukraine and at home. When disaster strikes, WCK’s Chef Relief Team mobilizes to the front lines making sure there is always a warm meal, an encouraging word, and a helping hand. World Central Kitchen has provided tens of millions of fresh, nourishing meals for communities around the world. Donations will be used to support emergency food relief efforts and resilience programs. For information, visit www.wck.org.

About Gift for Life

Gift for Life was founded by Peter Schauben of Appleman Schauben in 1992 in response to the tragic loss of industry lives to AIDS. The organization’s first meeting at the National Stationery Show brought together a cross-section of the industry’s leading publishers, market centers, sales reps, manufacturers, and retailers – all willing to convene and work together towards a common goal. Since that time, Gift for Life has raised nearly $6 million for AIDS research, education, treatment and care through nationwide at-market events, cause marketing programs and direct donations. With COVID-19 temporarily causing cancelation of in-person events at industry markets, Gift for Life pivoted towards online digital events with a specific emphasis on COVID-related hunger relief. As Gift for Life celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2022, the all-volunteer organization will continue to support programs that address hunger relief. More information is available at www.giftforlife.org.