Dinner On Us brings restaurant-quality meals to Rescue Mission

Perhaps Giovanna Raccosta has chosen the definitive name for her all-volunteer effort: Dinner On Us.

The Summerlin artist and about 24 of her friends are out to give those in the residency program at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, 480 W. Bonanza Road, not just a meal but a great meal.

The plan is to host dinner at the Mission the first Saturday of every month. The first one was Oct. 1. It was an Italian feast, with roughly 120 people served.

"They gave us a standing ovation ... people had tears in their eyes," Raccosta said.

Various businesses pitched in to help. Chef Marc's Parma, 7591 W. Washington Ave., provided six trays of baked ziti and salad. As soon as Raccosta approached them, representatives of Sunflower Market, 4020 S. Rainbow Blvd., donated two heaping grocery carts full of fruits and vegetables.

"I got to my car, and I didn't know where to put it all," Raccosta said.

Rocco's NY Pizzeria, 10860 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 190, made zeppoli, an Italian dessert. Paymon's Mediterranean Cafe, 4147 S. Maryland Parkway, and Zaytoon, 3655 S. Durango Drive, also provided food.

John Fogal, director of development at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, said the initial effort served about 150 people in the yearlong addiction recovery program, which is a residential program.

"It was a real treat for them, a real blessing," he said.

A couple of times a month, businesses and other groups have provided meals, said Fogal, but it's not an all-out, restaurant-quality effort like Dinner On Us. Nor was the experience just about the food.

"She's really going out of her way to make it special with tablecloths and music. ... This speaks volumes to the heart and character of people in the community who have every reason to tighten their own purse strings," he said.

Future meal plans will include extras such as belly dancing on Middle Eastern food night and a mariachi band on Mexican food night. For the Oct. 1 effort, Art Gomez came from a gig to play the guitar.

Raccosta is a portrait artist and has no background in the restaurant business or experience in orchestrating such an effort. She woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for Dinner On Us and how to accomplish it.

"I got out of bed, started writing it down, and four hours later, I had everything figured out," she said.

The night before the dinner, Raccosta has a mass cooking effort in her Summerlin home.

Hannah Carson was there and helped cook 500 meatballs and roasted bell peppers. She said it was exhausting but well worth it.

"It gives you an appreciation for what you have ... you think your problems are so big, then you look at these people. They have nothing," she said. "Your own problems seem so pointless."

Some people who didn't have time to help out donated money.

"We don't need money," Raccosta said, adding that she's very thrifty. "We need people to come help cut up potatoes, to cook."

To help out, email Raccosta at gioracc@gmail.com.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.