Local Organization Uses Dining to Raise Dollars for Women Around the World

Giving back and helping those in need has been a way of life for Tamara Cucchiara-Sitka, a Scotts Valley resident.

“When I was 5, I helped my Sicilian grandparents, who owned a café in Oakland, hand out food to the homeless every morning and evening," she said. "They would line up in the alleyway, and we would give them pasta, garlic bread and soup. Recently, I met a woman who started crying as she told me that my grandparents kept her mentally ill brother alive for years with that food. "

As West Coast regional manager of Dining for Women, Cucchiara-Sitka has found her path to giving back.

Dining For Women (DFW) describes its mission as “a dinner giving circle.” The women in the group get together once a month, each bringing a dish to share, and “dine in.” They then take the money they would have spent by dining out and donate it to programs around the world that help and empower women.

“It’s given me a different perspective on what’s going on in the world," Cucchiara-Sitka said. "Every month at our meetings, I learn about women in all kinds of cultures, and there’s this thread that’s woven into this whole tapestry of life. I love bringing women into our chapters, seeing them grow as leaders. The more women that become members, the more women we can support.”

The organization, which was founded in 2002 in South Carolina and has chapters throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and China, raises an average of $35,000-$40,000 a month.

Santa Cruz County has three DFW chapters, which Cucchiara-Sitka said speaks for the kind of women who live here.

"We are very progressive women and very involved in our community, and it’s important to us to make a difference,” she said. “My membership in Dining for Women gave me that sense of sisterhood and connection to other women in the county. I feel that for once in my life, I am connected to my community.”

Cucchiara-Sitka said the organization has also changed her life in many ways.

“I have met a Masai warrior and Betty Makoni, an international women’s advocate who has built 45 schools for girls in Zimbabwe and was a CNN Hero recipient in 2009," she said. "Betty and I have a lot in common. At 6 years old, she survived a violent rape and she had to be quiet because her parents didn’t want anyone to know. At 9, she witnessed her father murdering her mother. My mother, too, married a man who was abusive to her. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t she leave him?'—so I have known women who have survived that environment. I want to support other girls surviving domestic violence and getting a better education so they don’t have to depend on men to take care of them.”

Cari Class had reached a crossroads in her life when she started the first DFW chapter in Santa Cruz County in 2007. Her son had gone off to college, and even though she was a successful graphic designer, she was looking for something more.

“There were 18 of us, made up of my co-workers and friends," she said. "Now we have three chapters and 560 women on our email list. It’s a way for me to bring women together in our community, which then can have a ripple effect throughout the world. DFW is a focal point for my life. The women who attend are interested and interesting.”

In addition to educating and providing health care to women in impoverished areas, DFW promotes entrepreneurship in the tradition of “teaching a woman to fish, rather than giving her a fish.”

Recently, Cucchiara-Sitka had been inspired by the book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a former ABC reporter/producer and a fellow with the Counsel of Foreign Relations. For the last couple of months, she has undertaken the project of getting the author to stop in Scotts Valley on her international book tour—and has finally succeeded.

Santa Cruz Dining for Women will present “An Evening with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon” on Thursday, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Satellite Telework Center in Scotts Valley, 5900 Butler Lane, Suite 130. Tickets are $20 and include a copy of the book and refreshments.

Tickets are available at Bookshop Santa Cruz, either in-store or by phone at 831-423-0900. For more information, contact Cucchiara-Sitka at 510-978-8588 or tas826@yahoo.com.

If you are interested in joining the Santa Cruz chapters of DFW, contact the organization at DiningforWomenSC@gmail.com.