During Tales on Tour: Puerto Rico Special Edition, festival attendees and sponsors will partake in a Day of Service to directly assist the Puerto Rican community
NEW ORLEANS, LA -March 6, 2019 – Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 2019 Tales on Tour: Puerto Rico Special Edition will take place March 10-13, 2019 with programming dedicated to serving the Puerto Rican community as it continues to recover from the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria. The Foundation, its sponsors, and renowned philanthropic organizations have partnered together to create a dedicated Day of Service (Tuesday, March 12) where attendees will have an opportunity to directly support Puerto Rico with volunteer efforts.
Tales of the Cocktail Foundation has partnered with sponsor BACARDÍ Rums and José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen to host two volunteer initiatives at local smallholder farms. The first farm, Frutos del Guacabo, is a hydroponic farm in Manatí that focuses on growing specialty crops like microgreens, edible flowers and added-value products. They also act as a mini-wholesaler between over 50 other smallholder farms and the restaurants and hotel industries. The second farm, J&M Agricola farm in Ciales, belongs to a licensed agronomist known as the master of citrus among his community. There, the head farmer grows all kinds of lemons, limes, and orange trees, among other crops. Volunteers at both farms will have the opportunity to assist in a number of ways from planting, to harvesting, making new beds, clearing land, weeding, feeding animals, building structures, trimming, and cleaning the farms.
“World Central Kitchen is excited to partner with Tales of the Cocktail on their day of service,” said Mikol Hoffman, World Central Kitchen -Program Manager Puerto Rico. “These volunteer experiences are particularly gratifying given the small scale of the farms, where these volunteer brigades lend an especially meaningful contribution, and the personal connection of these two farms to the spirits and hospitality industry.”
The Rincón chapter of Surfrider Foundation and Arrecifes Pro Ciudad have partnered with The Foundation and sponsor Don Q Rum to clean up the Isla Verde Reserve beach. This volunteer effort will be divided into three parts: a standard beach clean-up, a directed scientific trash survey of portions of the beach, and an overview and comparison of the Isla Verde Reserve’s goals and challenges in a highly urban environment compared to a similar reef reserve in the small town of Rincón. The work will not only help clean up the local beaches, but also helps to gather evidence (through collected statistical data) to support critical anti-plastic legislation and community initiatives for reducing solid waste.
“Both the Isla Verde Reef Reserve in San Juan and the Reserva Marina Tres Palmas in Rincón are co-managed Marine Protected Areas created specifically to protect valuable marine resources and wildlife in heavily touristic areas,” said Steve Tamar, Vice-chairman of Surfrider Foundation Rincón, Coordinator of the Blue Water Task Force Rincón and Paco Lopez-Mujica, President of Arrecifes Pro Ciudad Inc. “Both these MPAs were designed and now managed by volunteer community-based entities, Arrecifes Pro Ciudad in Isla Verde, and the Rincón chapter of Surfrider Foundation (now part of the co-management entity Amigos de Tres Palmas) in northwest Puerto Rico. Since these non-profit entities are staffed by volunteers from the local community, they depend exclusively on donations for their operating costs and, more importantly, for volunteer efforts to maintain their respective areas – especially in regards to regular cleanups and trash management. Collaborating with volunteers from The Foundation for a day of service cleaning beaches and tabulating the collected trash in the IVRR is an excellent opportunity for visitors to directly help protect this important area, and contribute to data that will help inform much-needed solid waste reduction efforts in all of PR. Many thanks to all those who will volunteer to join this effort.”
The final activity, sponsored by Lift your Spirit by Pernod Ricard and SBP in partnership with The Foundation, gives volunteers the opportunity to help rebuild homes and acquire construction skills through training, supervision, and practice in the tasks of the day. Tasks include but are not limited to putting down tiles, painting, building framing walls, and masonry work with cement. The day’s work will bring an affected family one step closer to moving back into their home.
“SBP’s recovery efforts have continued since right after Hurricane Maria made landfall,” said Dio Ortiz, Executive Director for SBP Puerto Rico. “We’ve been truly humbled by the number of people willing to volunteer to rebuild homes impacted-families. Partnerships like this one make recovery in Puerto Rico possible.”
“We are incredibly excited to be able to incorporate hands-on volunteer initiatives into Tales on Tour to directly assist Puerto Rico’s ongoing relief efforts through service,” said Caroline Rosen, Executive Director of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation. “We are endlessly grateful for the sponsors and partners again for making the Day of Service possible and to our attendees who jumped at the chance to support these worthwhile causes.”
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The full schedule and signups for the Day of Service can be found here. For more information on Tales of the Cocktail, please visit www.talesofthecocktailfoundation.org. |
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About Tales of the Cocktail
Founded in 2002, Tales of the Cocktail has grown from a small gathering of cocktail lovers into the world’s premier cocktail festival. Each year the international spirits industry is welcomed to New Orleans for a week of seminars, tastings, networking events and much more. With 200+ annual events developed specifically for bartenders, distillers and other spirits professionals, Tales of the Cocktail is the industry’s annual meeting place for the exchange of new ideas, products and techniques.
About Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization that educates, advances and supports the global hospitality industry and creates lasting impact in our host communities. Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is the global leader in spirits education and a platform to tackle issues facing the industry. The pillars of the Foundation are to Educate, Advance and Support the hospitality industry through programs that benefit individuals and organizations in the community and to make a lasting impact in communities that host our events.
Media Inquiries:
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