{"id":80989,"date":"2025-12-12T15:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80989\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:24:06","slug":"magical-dining-raises-record-amount-for-orange-county-charities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80989\/","title":{"rendered":"Magical Dining raises record amount for Orange County charities"},"content":{"rendered":"

A record-breaking $398,307 was raised for Orange County charities during the 2025 Magical Dining Program, Visit Orlando<\/a> announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

The total collected by the tourism association\u2019s program \u2014 presented by Orlando Health \u2014 is a 13% increase over last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisit Orlando\u2019s Magical Dining showcases the best of Orlando\u2019s food scene and culinary talent, offering great deals for locals, driving business to restaurants and raising funds for charities in our community,\u201d Casandra Matej, president and CEO of Visit Orlando, said in a press release. \u201cThis milestone 20th year not only delivered a record donation but also welcomed a record number of participating restaurants \u2014 including 24 newcomers and 15 MICHELIN Guide honorees \u2014 reflecting our community\u2019s growing enthusiasm for Orlando\u2019s ever-evolving dining scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful for every diner and restaurant partner whose participation is helping drive meaningful change throughout Central Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program has raised nearly $3.3 million since its charity fundraising component was launched in 2009. This year\u2019s primary beneficiary, REED Charitable Foundation<\/a>, focuses on ending the literacy crisis by ensuring all children have access to reading instruction based on how the brain learns to read \u2014 by providing affordable, accessible educator training.<\/p>\n

Visit Orlando also awarded $3,000 to additional nonprofits in each of the county\u2019s six commission districts as part of the agency\u2019s continuing mission to expand the program.<\/p>\n

The recipients were:<\/p>\n

Boys 2 Men Mentoring<\/a>\u00a0to build confidence\/life skills through mentoring and supporting academic success
\nEarly Learning Coalition of Orange County <\/a>to connect families to quality early education and programs that strengthen school readiness\/literacy
\nFinding the Lost Sheep<\/a>\u00a0to offer tutoring and STEAM activities to boost learning\/creativity
\nNuevo Sendero <\/a>to provide counseling and art-based programs that foster emotional health\/language development
\nSamaritan Resource Center<\/a> to support adult literacy and ESL and create stronger learning environments for children
\nTherapy Wish to fund speech and language therapies for early communication and literacy skills<\/p>\n

Magical Dining\u2019s nonprofit focus: \u2018It has allowed us to serve more of the community\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were deeply honored and grateful to be chosen as the nonprofit beneficiary for the 20th anniversary of Visit Orlando\u2019s Magical Dining program,\u201d Jennifer Knopf, founder and president of REED, said in the release. \u201cWe know that ensuring every child is equipped with the life-saving skills that come with literacy is vital to creating a thriving community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the generous support of this program, REED Charitable Foundation will be able to do just that by expanding our impact across Orlando and equipping more educators with the essential knowledge and support to confidently teach every child how to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit Orlando CEO\u2019s pay nears $700K, tax filing shows<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Magical Dining Program had more than 160 participating restaurants around metro Orlando. Four were singled out for standout performance: Otto\u2019s High Dive (top performing new restaurant: $40 menu); The Chapman (top performing new restaurant, $60 menu; STK Orlando (largest increase in meals served year over year); and Seasons 52 Orlando (top overall performer).<\/p>\n

Magical Dining: Where does the money go?<\/a><\/p>\n

Returning presenting sponsor Erick Hawkins, Orlando Health\u2019s chief financial officer and Visit Orlando board member, noted the inspirational effort put forth by the community to support the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a healthcare organization, we deeply understand how critical strong literacy skills are to lifelong wellbeing and we are grateful for the opportunity to support Visit Orlando as they continue working to empower our community,\u201d Hawkins said.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit OrlandoMagicalDining.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

amthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record-breaking $398,307 was raised for Orange County charities during the 2025 Magical Dining Program, Visit Orlando announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[104,28,4451,114,1335,139,141,140,687,5961,109,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-80989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-food-drink","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-orange-county","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news","16":"tag-restaurants","17":"tag-sentinel-restaurants","18":"tag-social","19":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}