Inaugural Burger Benefit hosted by NFA Burger Raises Over $50K

Chefs from around the country gathered at NFA Burger in Dunwoody, GA to sling burgers and raised over $50K in critical funds for Giving Kitchen.

Who: Chefs who love making burgers
What: Burgers, fries, and beer
Where: NFA Burger in Dunwoody, GA
When: Sunday, May 7, 2023, from 11 am – 7 pm
Why: To raise money for Giving Kitchen to support food service workers in crisis!

Here’s the fun part:

• From 11am to 7PM, each chef had a 90-minute time slot to cook their own version of the cheeseburger from the film The Menu.
• Each chef made approximately 60 burgers.
• Ticket holders chose their time slot at the time of purchase, but the chefs were assigned their time slot randomly… which meant you had no control over which burger you received!

NFA Owner, Billy Kramer, tells us the story about how one podcast episode turned in to an idea for fundraising for Giving Kitchen.

“As the owner of a restaurant, I tend to listen to a ton of food podcasts. Since I had no restaurant background before opening 3+ years ago, any piece of information I can glean from an episode can have an immediate impact on my business.”

One such podcast is the Sporkful by Dan Pashman.

In late February, I listened to an episode discussing how restaurants are portrayed in film / tv. The discussion turned from The Bear to Atlanta ending with a discussion about The Menu. This is where I was introduced to John Benhase, one of the consulting chefs on The Menu. Realizing John lived in Savannah, I decided to reach out and invite him to NFA Burger the next time he was in Atlanta. After exchanging some DMs, I decided to ask John if he would consider a pop-up at NFA Burger where we would both make the cheeseburger from the end of The Menu. He quickly accepted.

Once I explained the event would benefit the Giving Kitchen, an organization that raises money for food service workers, he jumped on board. The Burger Benefit was born. The inaugural event had 21 chefs from all over the world cooking their own version of the cheeseburger from The Menu.

Create your own special event like Burger Benefit that includes a chef collaboration or dinner to raise critical funds where $XX for every ticket sold can benefit Giving Kitchen.

Contact Giving Kitchen’s Partnership & Outreach Team to get started:
Sr. Director of Field Operations, Leah Melnick at leah@thegivingkitchen.org
Director of Partnerships & Outreach, Sean Palani at sean.palani@thegivingkitchen.org