It’s Time to Dine Out For Life on Behalf of DAP Health on April 27
Dining Out For Life® — the annual, North American gastronomic fundraising event that has collected more than 100 million dollars for community-based organizations that serve people living with or impacted by HIV since its inception in 1991 — will take place in Palm Springs and across the Coachella Valley on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Every year since 2005 — save for 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 derailed best-laid plans — Greater Palm Springs has participated in the all-day/all-night affair on behalf of DAP Health. And on each of those occasions, locals, snowbirds, and even tourists have swelled with pride and come out with a vengeance to earn much-needed monies while enjoying the generosity of participating local restaurants, bars, and bakeries that donate anywhere from 30 to 110% of their entire day and evening’s receipts — not just the profits — to the popular effort.
Thanks to the benevolent support of participating restaurants, volunteers, and community members, Greater Palm Springs has grown to become the second-most-successful market in the country. In 2022, 68 desert restaurants participated to raise $207,000 — more than San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and other large urban centers. In fact, the desert — with its Indio-Cathedral City-Palm Springs 2022 metro population of 487,000 — came in second only to Denver, whose current population is almost 3 million!
With more than 12,000 local bighearted gourmands expected to dine out for life at breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner this year, the 2023 goal is for Dining Out For Life Greater Palm Springs to grab the number one spot.
Eager participants are urged to visit daphealth.org/dofl, make reservations well in advance, and prepare to sate their hunger and thirst three times or more on April 27 to beat the North American record right here in our back yard. If their favorite breakfast, lunch, or dinner spot hasn’t yet made its participation public, diners should speak up and urge the powers that be to sign up ASAP.
The umbrella organization’s website states that each year, “more than 50 local HIV service organizations partner with 2,400+ participating restaurants, 4,100+ volunteers, and 300,000+ diners to raise over $4.5 million for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States and Canada. The best part? All funds raised through a city’s Dining Out For Life event stay in that city to provide help and hope to people living with or impacted by HIV/AIDS.”
“At its heart, Dining Out For Life is a win-win community event where people get together with friends to feast for the greater good,” says DAP Health CEO David Brinkman. “Each year, I’m awestruck not only by the generosity of our participating restaurateurs, but by the enthusiasm and pride of our deeply committed desert dwellers. What a genius way to have fun while giving back.”
To register as a Dining Out For Life in-restaurant volunteer ambassador on April 27 — or to sign on as a participating establishment — please contact Avery Bell at [email protected] or 760.992.0441, or Bruce Benning at [email protected] or 760.320.7854.
Why DAP Health
Today, thousands of our friends and neighbors have no access to health care. Together, likeminded philanthropists of all stripes can change that by joining the nonprofit’s mission to create a healthier tomorrow by giving a voice to the often forgotten and by making sure none of us ever forgets that health care is not only human care, but a human right.
About DAP Health
Founded in 1984 by a group of community volunteers, DAP Health is an internationally renowned humanitarian health care organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC). In 2012, the nonprofit expanded its scope to care for all people.
Thanks to nearly 40 years of caring for people both directly and indirectly affected not only by the HIV/AIDS epidemic but by various other public health emergencies, DAP Health has the physical and intellectual resources, the desire, and — most importantly — the imagination to effect even greater positive change in the desert and beyond.
The next epidemic hasn’t surfaced — yet. But just as DAP Health met earlier community health crises decisively and successfully, its experts stand at the ready.
Vision Forward
DAP Health currently serves more than 10,000 patients annually, and every month, more than 100 new patients walk through its doors seeking comprehensive, quality health care. Clearly, there is unmet need.
Vision Forward is DAP Health’s 10-year strategic plan that will see the nonprofit grow to serve 25,000 patients a year at its main Palm Springs campus by 2025 thanks to expanded medical, dental, and mental health clinics and a new affordable housing complex that will add 60 units at Vista Sunrise II to the existing 81 units at Vista Sunrise. Grand total: 141.
The future of health care is holistic, innovative, agile, collaborative — and above all — patient-centric. DAP Health puts humanity back into health care. It meets community members where they are. It seeks out and lifts up allies for the betterment of all.
HIV/AIDS at DAP Health
Despite its substantial growth, HIV/AIDS care remains a cornerstone of DAP Health. Today, the nonprofit continues to:
- Offer free onsite and mobile HIV and STI testing, including the mailing of at-home HIV tests to those unable to access its main Palm Springs campus.
- Link people newly diagnosed with HIV to care — and help them remain in care — so that they can be undetectable, therefore unable to transfer the virus to others (U=U).
- Provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
2022 Community Impact
- 32,496 HIV tests administered at the main campus and in the mobile clinic
- 1,062 HIV self-test kits mailed to homes
- 75 patients welcomed into HIV care immediately after testing positive
- 130 people resumed antiretroviral treatment (ART) after lapses
- 639 patients accessed PrEP for the first time
- 35,000 condoms made available through DAP Health’s Condom Club
Health care is...
Advocacy • Cultural Competency • Dental Care • Ending Epidemics • Equitable Access
Food Assistance • Gender-affirming Care • Harm Reduction • HIV Care • Housing
LGBTQ+ Health • Mental Health • Mobile Health Care • Primary Care • Recovery
Sexual Health • Social Services • Women’s Health
DAP Health... is health care.
Participating Restaurants at Press Time
533 Viet Fusion
1501 Uptown Gastropub
Alcazar
Aspen Mills Bakery & Café
Birba
Blackbook
Chicken Ranch
Clandestino
Coachella Valley Coffee
Eight4Nine Restaurant & Lounge
El Mirasol at Los Arboles Hotel
El Mirasol Cocina Mexicana
El Patio Palm Springs
Elmer’s
FARM
Gelato Granucci
Hunters Nightclub Palm Springs
Impala Bar & Grill PSP
Johannes
Johnny Costa’s Ristorante
Juniper Table
King’s Highway
Lulu California Bistro
Mr. Lyons
Palm Greens Café
Purple Room
Seymour’s
Shop(pe) Ice Cream & Shop
So-Pa at L’Horizon
Tac/Quila
The Front Porch
The Tropicale Restaurant & Lounge
Toucans Tiki Lounge
Townie Bagels Bakery Café
Trio Restaurant
Willie’s Modern Fare
Proud 2023 Dining Out For Life Sponsors
Gilead
Steve Tobin & Johnny Krupa/Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation
Roadrunner
Media Sponsors
100.9 FM NRG The Deserts Dance Station
Alpha Media
CV Independent
Gay Desert Guide
NBC Palm Springs
PromoHomo.TV
The Desert Sun / Local IQ
The Standard Magazine