Super Bowl-related cause efforts upped their games in Houston.
More than 750 attended the Giving Back Fund’s lavish annual Big Game Big Give gala, held at the estate of Michael and Lisa Holthouse, which this year added an after-dinner poker tournament and raised more than $1.3 million, according to Giving Back Fund founder and President Marc Pollick.
Tickets for the party were $3,000, while celebrity poker tourney tickets were an additional $2,000. Sponsors included BBVA, AOL, USA Today and Tesla. Michael Phelps’ wife, Nicole, finished fourth in the poker tournament.
The latest edition of the Taste of NFL strolling wine and food benefit was sold out and attended by more than 2,500, paying upward of $750 each to benefit food banks. Founder Wayne Kostroski said proceeds from the event will fund more than 5 million meals. Super Bowl LII will mark the Taste’s return to Minnesota, where it began in 1992 at Super Bowl XXVI.
The total amount raised for the Culinary Institute of America by the third annual Culinary Kickoff ($1,250 a plate) at Brennan’s of Houston, with celebrity chefs Michael Mina and Charlie Palmer, was not available at press time. Sponsor Williams-Sonoma helped activate outside the restaurant floor, with an event Wednesday at its store in local Highland Village that included its chefs, ESPN talent Sage Steele and Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk.
The program has been growing enough each year that organizer Chrissy Delisle is planning one for the Thursday before this year’s Kentucky Derby, in association with the Muhammad Ali Center, which will be a beneficiary.
