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Ristorante Cosa Nostra donates to Food Bank

Photo: Arianna Johnson (third from right) accepts a cheque from Mark Hobson (second from right) on July 2, 2015 at Ristorante Cosa Nostra. Bradley Karp / AFTERNOON REPORTER

(Photo: Arianna Johnson (third from right) accepts a cheque from Mark Hobson (second from right) on July 2, 2015 at Ristorante Cosa Nostra. Bradley Karp / AFTERNOON REPORTER)

Running a restaurant that is only a few weeks old would be enough to fill the plate of most people, but Ristorante Cosa Nostra made time to donate funds to the Wood Buffalo Food Bank.

Executive Chef Mark Hobson handed over a $2,100 cheque to Arianna Johnson, Executive Director of the Wood Buffalo Food Bank.

“What we did is we had the General Manager of the Toronto Argonauts [Jim Barker] come over here for Friday night [Jun. 26] and he gave me ten VIP tickets for the game and that included sidelines and having a whole day with the players,” said Hobson. “I asked them can I auction them off for a charitable cause and he said ‘yes’.”

Hobson says the auction took all of five minutes after the third course of the dinner service.

The food bank has seen usage sky-rocket since the price of oil began to tumble.

“2015 for the Food Bank has been kind of an anomaly. In the first quarter of the year we experienced a 74 per cent increase in the number of clients we were serving, if you compared that to the first quarter of last year,” said Johnson. “The second quarter had less of an increase it’ll be more around the 30 per cent mark, it’s still an increase.”

The Northern Kickoff was a big benefit to the Food Bank which also received $3,000 and three-thousand pounds of food from the Purolator Tackle Hunger campaign.

Hobson says he’s not done fundraising yet. While the restaurant is closed on Sundays, he says he’s more than willing to open the restaurant for groups that are looking to hold a higher end fundraiser.

“We are available for any charitable organization that needs a place to do a fundraiser, a seven course chefs table with wine and pairing,” said Hobson. “I’m available for that for anyone who approaches me and says lets sell tickets, let’s fill the place up on a Sunday.”

Interested parties should call the restaurant at (780) 838-4567.