Viking
Establishes Fund to Help
Re-Build New Orleans Restaurant Industry
Display at James Beard Awards to
Illustrate Effects
of Hurricane Katrina on Culinary Community
GREENWOOD,
Miss., May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Viking Range
Corporation has established the New Orleans Restaurant
Renewal Fund (NORRF) to financially support the
restoration of the city's culinary community.
The fund will accept donations
online via the Web site www.norrf.org
and will primarily serve to assist the New Orleans
restaurant community by providing housing assistance
for restaurants' staff members. The NORRF
may also help subsidize the cost of staffing city
restaurants during periods of low patronage as
well as provide other forms of assistance as needed.
"It is critical for New
Orleans and the culinary heritage of our country
that the great restaurants of the city survive
the volatile circumstances resulting from Katrina,"
said Charles Dunn, NORRF president, and director
of wine programs for Viking. "The NORRF is
working with a number of relatively small, renowned
restaurants, which are essential to preserving
the city's culinary traditions, in an effort to
build a bridge to their stability. Currently,
one of the most pressing needs of these restaurants
is the return of their staffs, which has been
delayed by their inability to find adequate and
reasonably-priced housing."
To commemorate the determined
revival of the New Orleans restaurant community,
Viking is a sponsor of an exhibit created by the
Southern Food and Beverage Museum titled "Come
Hell or High Water." The "Restaurant/Restorative"
portion of the exhibit will be displayed in preview
on Monday, May 8 at the 16th Annual James Beard
Foundation Awards Ceremony and Reception, which
this year bears the theme "New Orleans:
A Culinary Legacy." Included in the
display at the awards will be a mural based on
famed New Orleans restaurant Dooky Chase, which
was heavily damaged by the storm. The mural is
flanked by photos and commentary that document
the difficulties restaurateurs faced in re-opening,
how the difficulties were overcome, as well as
what the re-openings have meant to the New Orleans
community.
The full "Come Hell or
High Water" exhibit, overseen by curator
Elizabeth Pearce, will contain photos and artifacts
that illustrate what New Orleans residents have
been through to hold on to the city's culture,
which is so tightly bound to its food. It
will debut in full on Thursday, June 22 at the
Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.
The exhibit will remain at the museum through
the end of September, and then will travel the
country. For more information on the exhibit
and future viewings, please visit www.southernfood.org.
The NORRF has been classified
by the IRS as a non-profit organization under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
and is based in Greenwood, Miss. at Viking corporate
headquarters. Deloitte & Touche are
outside auditors and administrative costs will
be borne by Viking. Board members include
Dale Persons, vice president of public affairs,
Viking; Jane Moss, treasurer, Viking; Charles
Dunn, director of wine programs, Viking; John
T. Edge, executive director of the Southern Foodways
Alliance; and Mark Fullmer of the Phelps Dunbar
law firm, New Orleans.
Viking Range Corporation is
a culinary lifestyle company that originated ultra-premium
commercial-type appliances for the indoor and
outdoor kitchen. Viking is headquartered in Greenwood,
Mississippi. Viking major appliances are sold
through a network of premium appliance distributors
and dealers worldwide, and Viking culinary products
are sold through a network of premium gourmet
retailers. For more information, please visit
www.vikingrange.com.
VIKING is a registered trademark of Viking Range
Corporation.
Viking
Range Corporation
Contact: Amy Page of Fleishman-Hillard,
+1-404-659-4446
Web site: http://www.vikingrange.com
http://www.norrf.org
http://www.southernfood.org/
PR
Newswire Association LLC, Distribution Services
Department,
810 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019
