This April, two local organizations that prioritize supporting a healthy community joined forces for an important cause. Seattle Restaurant Week (SRW), a campaign of Seattle Good Business Network’s Good Food Economy program came forward as a partner in the SAVOR LIFE. SAVE A LIFE. campaign; Bloodworks Northwest partnered with Seattle Restaurant Week for the first time.

Mariah DeLeo, Program Manager for Good Food Economy, says they’ve been thrilled to help promote the initiative during SRW. The partnership evolved when mutual contacts heard about community work they were doing already in a similar restaurant space and thought there might be synergy there. “Indeed, there was!” she exclaims.

DeLeo and the team knew it was time to get involved, after being made aware of the devastating effects the pandemic has had on blood donation supplies, even as the demand has increased. “Learning more about how few people are eligible to donate and how vital raising awareness is to encouraging people to donate,” she says, “it seemed a natural extension of the community care work that was already a part of our spring promotion to do what we could to support this campaign.”

Curt Bailey, President, and CEO of Bloodworks Northwest, says the culinary community is remarkable for many things — particularly how they consistently turn out when called upon. “Seattle Restaurant Week is a show of love from the restaurant industry toward the community it feeds every day,” he says, “as well as thanks for the community’s support of their local restaurants and staff.”

He adds that they’ve been very impressed by the great work Seattle Good Business Network has done in building SRW and Good Food Kitchens. “Their goal is to focus on community care and support for the local food economy,” he says, “while Bloodworks’ goal is to build a healthier community by showing up and making sure blood is available whenever a neighbor should need it. It felt like a natural fit to bring two very like-minded organizations together to see how our two approaches to community care could make for an even more impactful opportunity to support our friends and neighbors.”

With awareness being so key, the campaign has given local restaurants and chefs the chance to use their platforms and community relationships to bring visibility to the need for blood donations and to let diners know how they can get involved, too. SRW has helped direct more than 100 interested venues to share campaign messaging on their social channels, handbills, and menus.

“Sharing a meal with someone is a special event,” Bailey says. “In the same kind of way, sharing a part of yourself by donating blood is a special thing, and both ways bring us together. They make us part of something bigger...part of a community! “ SAVOR LIFE. SAVE A LIFE. describes two ways diners can be part of the community — through a meal and through the donation of blood. With the campaign, organizers hope to see 10,000 new and reengaged blood donors stop by a Bloodworks Donor Center or a pop-up blood drive.

In light of the past couple of years, Good Food Economy has brought SRW more closely under the umbrella of their programming — and has reimagined the event to adapt to the times. “Since 2020, Seattle Restaurant Week has evolved alongside and in support of an incredibly creative and resilient restaurant industry,” DeLeo says, “with an additional focus on community care and support for the local food economy that was more aligned with our organization's values.”

This year, they sought to open up the promotion by eliminating participation fees, removing the discount requirement, providing flexibility on menu structure, adding new menu prices, and opening up the promotion to any dining format a restaurant is using currently. (That could mean takeout, delivery, even meal kits.) “With this [latest] campaign,” she adds, “we have also focused more intentionally on outreach to food trucks and pop-ups who are demonstrating incredible innovation, exciting new menus, and alternative paths forward for food businesses in this new landscape.”  

Chris Cvetkovic, Chef Patron at Capitol Hill’s Nue Seattle, along with his wife and business partner Uyen, have a long history of helping the community — both through their restaurant and various independent projects. “We launched Nue Planet back in 2020, our non-profit to help meet the needs of first responders during Covid,” he explains. Uyen also founded Viets for Afghans, the first group in the nation to place Afghan refugees with sponsorship from private citizens. “Bringing the world together is what our concept is all about, so will always be a focus of our business,” he says.

“We support the cause wholeheartedly,” Cvetkovic says of the SAVOR LIFE campaign, for which they signed up to promote on their social media outlets and restaurant menus.

Bailey speaks to the campaign’s parallels: Patients need blood to live and to thrive, and humanity needs food to live. “And just as we nourish ourselves with a meal,” he adds, “through eating and being with others, in the same way, blood donation is a way to share something that nourishes someone who is desperate for that nourishment. It is a beautiful thing.”

For more information, please visit the Bloodworks and Seattle Restaurant Week websites.