Raise Money for Charity by Dining In

In one evening, you can make new friends, enjoy good food and conversation—and help women across the world, all in one sitting.

A new Mountain View chapter of Dining for Women experiences this great feeling every fourth Thursday of each month at the home of Mary Burns on Springer Road.

“I decided I liked it and wanted to start my own chapter, because they don’t have many over here,” Mary said, who heard of the organization in 2010 through some networking and went to some dinners in the county. 

Founded in 2003 with about 20 women who collected $750 from that first night, Dining for Women aims to raise money for women and girls living in poverty through charities that teach and foster health, education and economic self-sufficiency.

The group, at a national level, designates a new charity each month, and the local chapters raise money for it. The last meeting was a benefit for Mujeres Aliadas, an organization that helps train women to be midwives and to understand their rights in a small Mexican community. 

The monthly meetings also create an opportunity for women to meet and network with other women over a nice meal, explained Shoréh Farahmand, a San Jose resident.

Debbie Baker, from Menlo Park, also attends the Mountain View meetings.

“I heard [Dining for Women] was doing projects to help women around the world," said Baker, who knows the Burns family. "So I thought this would be a nice way to help and learn."

Each guest at the meeting brings some food to share and watches a video about that month's charity. The women leave money—often what they'd spend if they were eating dinner out—in a donation box. 

“It just makes me so sad to hear what these women have to put up with,”said Burns, who added that Dining for Women always help rural communities, which makes her “happy” to do something to lend a hand.

She and her husband Robert (Bob) Burns, a former Mountain View fire chief, also run a charity of their own—the Kasimu Education Fund, which provides money for classrooms, teachers and student scholarships, among other things, in Malawi.

The charity has applied to be one of Dining for Women's benefiting charities in 2012.

The charity for June, Shining Hope for Communities, provides free schooling and social services in Kibera, a poverty-stricken community of Kenya.

“It’s an easy thing to do,” said Bob Burns, who started to host the dinner parties in February. “We just supply the space, and people bring the food, and several hundred dollars are raised [in our chapter] to help.”

For more information about Mountain View’s Dining for Women chapter or for more information about the Kasimu Education Fund, contact Mary or Bob Burns at mburnsbv@sbcglobal.net.