In the News
Thousands throng
Saratoga restaurants
for Split the Bill promotion
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nearly 2,300 people spent more than $180,000 at city restaurants on Thursday as part of the first Split the Bill promotion locally. Patrons who submitted qualifying receipts by 11:59 p.m. Thursday for meals purchased that day were reimbursed 50 percent of their restaurant tab, up to $30 per receipt, under Split the Bill. The campaign, launched last spring on Long Island by the Sidgmore Family Foundation, is intended to aid an ailing industry by spurring dine-in and takeout business to local restaurants.
Saratoga was the seventh incarnation of Split the Bill, after five on Long Island and one in Westchester County. It was brought to Saratoga by Steven Donnelly, who is president of the local division of the wholesale distributor Driscoll Foods and a senior vice president of the parent Driscoll company. Driscoll's Amsterdam warehouse covers territory from the Hudson Valley to Plattsburgh and the Berkshires to Syracuse.
Driscoll and its co-sponsor, the beverage distributor Saratoga Eagle, are evenly splitting the $60,400 reimbursed to participating patrons, Donnelly said. The companies worked in partnership with the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and the Saratoga Springs Downtown Business Association, and Split the Bill managed operations through its website, splitthebillny.com.
"It was tremendously successful, much more than we'd expected," Donnelly said. "We couldn't be more pleased by the outpouring of community support." He said 2,295 qualifying receipts were submitted, reflecting total spending of $181,200 at about three dozen restaurants.
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SAIL organization to deliver 285 dinner kits for Thanksgiving
SAIL, or Southern Adirondack Independent Living, based in Queensbury, along with Driscoll Foods, collaborated this year to feed 285 families for Thanksgiving. The goal, said Tyler Whitney, SAIL's senior director of administration and operations, was to keep people with disabilities out of grocery stores.
SAIL asked families to call to voice their need for assistance.
"We had 200 people call within the first hour," Whitney said.
The food that SAIL is donating comes in the form of "dinner kits from start-to-finish," which means everything from cleaning supplies to masks to food is provided.
Driscoll employees and SAIL employees volunteered their time Monday to pack the kits.
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Driscoll Foods Completes Installation of a Rooftop Solar Array
WAYNE — A solar-energy grid the size of nine football fields has been installed atop a local warehouse to power its walk-in coolers and freezers full of food.
Those goods, stored in 340,000 square feet of refrigeration units, are shipped to hospital patients, passengers aboard cruise ships and students eating in cafeterias at New York City's public schools.
Driscoll Foods, a family-owned distributor of beverages, frozen items, produce and other groceries, is now drawing energy through one of the largest rooftop solar installations in the entire state.
The installation will provide an added benefit each year by offsetting at least 3,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions polluting the air — equal to removing almost 700 cars from area roads, the company said.
Learn more about the project & see aerial views Northjersey.com