Charity pasta dinners at the Caboto Club served up hot meals and added support for Windsor-Essex organizations in 2024.
On Tuesday, club representatives announced $29,200 was raised for the 12 charities that participated in the pasta nights in 2024.
Each month, one charity is responsible for the dinner, alongside volunteers.
Last year, Fantastic Fathers, which aims to help parents strengthen their relationship with their children, set a record with 767 meals served in one night.
“We’re thrilled to be selected to be one of the 12 participating organizations in it, and we had a record-breaking year,” said Steve Brown of Fantastic Fathers. “We’ve got another year coming up, and we’re looking forward to that very much.”
While organizations can sometimes create a friendly competition over the amount of meals served, they often return each month to help the other charities on their night.
Brown said they do their best to attend the dinners each month.
“It doesn’t matter who the winner is or anything like that. The rivalry is fun, but at the end of the year, it’s all split up, and it doesn’t really matter which month you attend,” Brown said.
He noted, the added funding will play an important role in allowing Fantastic Fathers to run programs.
For the Caboto Club, 2025 marks 100 years since they began serving the community.
Robert Brait, the president of the Caboto Club, said part of the enjoyment of their work is watching community members come together.
“I think it’s just fun to see everybody come out and take the initiative to just help the community, “ Brait said of the pasta dinners. “So you get to meet new people that way, and they get to find out what the other charities are doing and what their purpose is, and just, you know, help everybody that we can.”
Each charity participates in the pasta diners for two years at a time, with six organizations rotated at a time.
