SoDel Fest this year: 'It's all about the kids'

The 3rd annual Southern Delaware Food and Wine Festival isn’t until October, but fundraising efforts are already underway even before tickets go on sale.

Tuesday evening, at the brand new Bluecoast on Coastal Highway in Rehoboth Beach, an event was held to showcase some food and wine but, more importantly, to raise money and introduce this year’s charity groups associated with SoDel Fest.

SoDel Fest chairwoman Stacy LaMotta introduced keynote speakers and laid out the motto for this year.

“It's all about the kids,” LaMotta said. “What better cause is there than that?”

Speakers included Carrie Leishman, president and CEO of the Delaware Restaurant Association, Jeff Gordon and Bob Fulton of the Cape Henlopen Educational Foundation (CHEF) and Laura Rimmer of Children and Families First.

Last year, SoDel Fest — a food and wine festival in Millsboro — raised $25,000 for charities like Children and Families First and the Food Bank of Delaware.

With business and civic leaders gathered on the outdoor patio at Bluecoast, the charity leaders made pitches and told stories about young students, many of which coming from poor financial and living situations, who have benefited from their charities.

“You can be the difference between surviving and thriving,” Rimmer told guests.

Leishman said the Delaware Restaurant Association is in 19 schools and has 3,000 students in Delaware studying culinary arts and hospitality management. The industry-driven curriculum teaches more than just knife skills and also includes 400 hours of paid work experience all around the state.

“When I was in school it was about home economics,” Leishman said. “It was about royal white frosting and brownies in culinary class. We’re changing that in Delaware through our foundation.”

READ MORE: SoDel celebrates 10th restaurant with opening of new Bluecoast

CHEF, in conjunction with Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is sending 22 of 22 seniors to college, the organization said Tuesday.

While speakers weren’t on stage, guests were treated to selected wines from SoDel Concepts — a title sponsor and host of the event — sommelier Mike Zygmonski, a selection of cheeses and passed hors d'oeuvres that included an interesting skewer containing toasted brioche, a slice of hot dog and piece of octopus.

New for this year’s festival is a pre-event, a five-course dinner the night before. For $250, guests will be treated to five courses from SoDel Concepts chefs with wine pairings from Zygmonski. The ticket includes entrance to the main festival Saturday. Limited to 100 guests, the Private Reserve ticket is designed to give festival goers red-carpet access to the entire weekend.

During the festival Saturday, Private Reserve Experience guests will be treated to an exclusive lounge area.

Tickets to SoDel Fest will be available soon. For more information visit sodelfest.com.