Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund

Last updated

Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund is a 501 charitable organization founded to provide support for families of workers in the food, beverage and hospitality industry who were lost in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Contents

Origins

The restaurant complex Windows on the World was on the 106th and 107th floors of the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001, all 79 employees working there were killed in the terrorist attacks. Elsewhere in the World Trade Center, many other members of the food service industry, including caterers; corporate dining room staff, kitchen staff and chefs; and restaurant delivery people who happened to be in the buildings, lost their lives as well.

A group of hospitality-industry professionals met out of concern for the families of those restaurant and dining room workers who had been killed in the attacks. Many of those who died had been entry-level workers whose families would struggle to pay rent and other basic expenses in the wake of the attacks. Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund was founded to provide short- and longer-term assistance to these families.

With much support from colleagues throughout the industry, the fund was founded by a core group of restaurant professionals: Darlene Dwyer, a public relations consultant in the food industry; David Emil, an owner and operator of Windows on the World at the time; chef Michael Lomonaco, executive chef at Windows on the World at the time; chef Waldy Malouf, chef and co-owner of the New York restaurant, Beacon; and chef Tom Valenti, chef and owner of the restaurant Ouest.

Activities

Windows of Hope serves 120 families. Initial assistance included cash grants, then extended to insurance coverage, educational tuition assistance, and case management services to help families cope not only with the loss of their loved ones but with securing settlements from the Federal Victims Compensation Fund.

Fundraising activities included soliciting donations and sponsoring a Dine Out event on October 11, 2001, during which participating restaurants in New York and elsewhere in the country donated 10% of sales that evening to Windows of Hope. Ultimately $23 million was raised for the fund.

Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund board members realized they would need help administering funds and structuring their organization. The fund enlisted the assistance of Community Service Society to provide services the fund itself could not.

According to a Binghamton University analysis of 9/11 non-profits, the fund's use of the Community Service Society is one reason why Windows of Hope has been a successful example of a 9/11 charity. "Their willingness to acknowledge what they did not know and to use Community Service Society allowed them to be responsive quickly", said David Campbell, associate professor of public administration at Binghamton University and author of the study, "Organic and Sustainable: The Emergence, Formalization and Performance of a September 11th Disaster Relief Organization".

As David Campbell writes in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, "... the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund provides a valuable example of the difference new organizations made in the relief effort and offers lessons for how new and established organizations can work together and make one another stronger."

In 2006, the fund's focus narrowed to assisting with tuition for family members, and the fund contracted with Scholarship America to manage tuition payments and reimbursements. The fund maintains an educational liaison to support families in their interactions with Scholarship America and with questions and concerns about educational matters.

The fund expects to serve the Windows of Hope families in this capacity through 2022.

Mission statement

Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund was formed to provide aid, future scholarships and funds to the families of the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy who worked in the food, beverage and hospitality professions throughout the entire complex and who were lost on September 11.

Related Research Articles

Charities and relief agencies raised over $657 million in the three weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the vast bulk going to immediate survivors and victims' families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodwill Industries</span> American business founded 1902

Goodwill Industries International Inc., or simply Goodwill, is an American business that provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who face barriers in their employment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Batali</span> American chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality

Mario Francesco Batali is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut, including Babbo in New York City, which received a Michelin star for several years. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, on shows such as Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site Eater revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its main campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the first to teach culinary arts in the United States, offers associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees, and has the largest staff of American Culinary Federation Certified Master Chefs. The CIA also offers continuing education for professionals in the hospitality industry as well as conferences and consulting services. The college additionally offers recreational classes for non-professionals. The college operates student-run restaurants on its four U.S. campuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows on the World</span> Defunct restaurant in New York City

Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors of the North Tower of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad N. Hilton Foundation</span> American non-profit charitable foundation

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is an American non-profit charitable foundation, established in 1944 by hotel entrepreneur Conrad Hilton. It remained relatively small until his death on January 3, 1979, when it was named the principal beneficiary of his estate. In 2007, Conrad's son, Barron Hilton announced that he would leave about 97% of his fortune to a charitable remainder unitrust which names the foundation as the remainder beneficiary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LDS Humanitarian Services</span> Charitable services within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Latter-day Saint Charities is a branch of the welfare department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization's stated mission is to relieve suffering, to foster self-reliance for people of all nationalities and religions, and to provide opportunities for service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Direct Relief</span> Charitable organization

Direct Relief is a nonprofit humanitarian organization whose mission is to improve the lives of people in poverty or emergency situations by providing the appropriate medical resources. The charity provides emergency medical assistance and disaster relief in the United States and internationally. The organization is headed by an independent board of directors and its president and CEO, Thomas Tighe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Valenti</span> American chef

Tom Valenti is the Executive Chef at Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Morristown NJ. Chef Valenti was formerly the owner and Executive Chef of Oxbow Tavern on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He is the former Executive Chef of Le Cirque Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. Previously, he was Executive Chef and co-owner of Ouest Restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which shuttered in 2015. The recipient of many awards for his comfortable cooking style, Valenti is best known for his salmon gravlax and slow-cooked meats, particularly braised lamb shanks. Chef Valenti is the author of 3 cookbooks, "Welcome to my Kitchen", "Soups, Stews and One Pot Meals" as well as "You Don't Have to be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook", dedicated to recipes for diabetic diets. Valenti was the driving force behind the creation of the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, established to benefit the surviving family members of foodservice-related victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Lomonaco</span> American chef

Michael Lomonaco is an American chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He is known for being the chef/director for Windows on the World, the restaurant located atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The restaurant was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, and all of the staff members who were working in the restaurant at the time of the attack died. Lomonaco survived as he was in the tower's lobby during the attacks, and was then evacuated from the building. He later opened Porter House New York, which Esquire named one of America's Best New Restaurants in October 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semper Fi & America's Fund</span> US non-profit organization

Semper Fi & America's Fund is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides a variety of programs to assist wounded veterans in all branches of the United States Armed Forces. The organization describes its mission as "providing urgently needed resources and financial support for combat wounded, critically ill and catastrophically injured members" of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. As of November 2023, Semper Fi & America's Fund has provided more than $312 million in assistance to over 31,000 service members and their families.

Convoy of Hope is an American faith-based nonprofit humanitarian and disaster relief organization that provides food, supplies, and humanitarian services to impoverished or otherwise needy populations throughout the world. The organization also engages in disaster relief work. It was founded in 1994 by Hal, Steve, and Dave Donaldson in Sacramento, California, later moved its headquartered to its current place in Springfield, Missouri, and is associated with the Assemblies of God and its Chi Alpha campus ministries and fellowships.

David Emil is an American restaurateur and New York State government official. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, David Emil was the president of the company that owned and operated the restaurant Windows on the World on the 106th and 107th floors of One World Trade Center, New York, New York. All the employees and guests at the restaurant during the attacks died, 79 of whom were Windows on the World employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Soupe</span> US nonprofit food rescue organization

La Soupe is a Cincinnati, Ohio, nonprofit organization that uses discarded food to produce meals and delivers them to other nonprofit agencies for distribution to people experiencing food insecurity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry in the United States</span> Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the United States restaurant industry via government closures, resulting in layoffs of workers and loss of income for restaurants and owners and threatening the survival of independent restaurants as a category. Within a week after the first closures, industry groups representing independent restaurateurs were asking for immediate relief measures from local, state, and federal governments, saying that as many as 75 percent of independent restaurants could not survive closures of more than a few weeks. By late July, nearly 16,000 restaurants had permanently closed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rethink Food</span> New York based food insecurity non-profit organization

Rethink Food NYC Inc, commonly called Rethink Food or just Rethink, is a non-profit organization based in New York City. The organization was founded to address hunger in the United States by contributing to a sustainable and equitable food system. Rethink collects excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, and corporate kitchens to provide nutritious meals for people living without food security at low or no-cost. The organization expanded its operations in March 2020 to meet growing food demands amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Simon Kim is a Korean-American restaurateur who owns and operates COTE Korean Steakhouse, a restaurant with locations in New York, Miami and Singapore. COTE New York has received a star from the Michelin Guide each year since opening in 2017. Kim's original “Korean Steakhouse” concept combines Korean barbecue with an American steakhouse experience and was inspired by his dual nationalities. Crain’s New York named Kim as one of their “40 Under 40” business leaders in 2019. In 2021, the National Restaurant Association, which represents 1 million restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of 15.6 million employees, elected Kim to serve on their board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Hayes (chef)</span> American chef and restaurateur

Christian Hayes is a chef and restaurateur from Portland, Maine, United States. Between 2019 and 2024, he was the owner and executive chef at The Garrison, a restaurant in Yarmouth, Maine. He was the winner of Food Network's Chopped episode "Pork on the Brain" in March 2018.

References

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

  1. ↑ Greenhouse, Steven (2001-09-21). "A Nation Challenged - Windows On The World - A Nation Challenged - Windows On The World - A Showpiece'S Survivors Wonder What To Do Now". The New York Times . New York City; Washington (Dc). Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  2. ↑ "From Windows on the World to Windows of Hope | Richard Heffner's Open Mind". Thirteen. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  3. ↑ "Binghamton University - Inside: Public administration expert tracks 9/11 nonprofits". Binghamton.edu. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  4. ↑ Campbell, David (2011-09-06). "The Lessons of 9/11 Philanthropy, a Decade Later - Opinion - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas". Philanthropy.com. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  5. ↑ "Binghamton Research Magazine - Spring/Summer 2011 - (17)". Nxtbook.com. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  6. ↑ Campbell, David A. (2010). "Organic and sustainable". Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 21 (2): 139–153. doi:10.1002/nml.20017.
  7. ↑ Sidman, Amanda P. (2011-09-11). "Windows on the World chef Michael Lomonco escaped 9/11 but dedicates cooking to friends he lost - New York Daily News". Articles.nydailynews.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  8. ↑ "Windows on the World - then, and now". CBS News. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
  9. ↑ "Dine out tomorrow and help Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund - SFGate". Articles.sfgate.com. 2001-10-10. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.