Story by: Sabrina Esposito

December 4th, 2015

For the past 12 years the Melting Pot, located in downtown Salt Lake City, has taken part in the “Thanks and Giving” fundraiser for St. Jude’s Research Hospital. With every ten dollars that the diner at the restaurant donates they get back a Donate and Dine card that is valued at twenty dollars when redeemed at the restaurant wither their next visit. 100 % of the donations given to the restaurant are sent to St. Jude’s to fund cancer research.

“This fundraising campaign for St. Jude is very dear to my heart because it truly shows our core values and vision for the Melting Pot statewide,” explains Zac Black, part owner of the Melting Pot downtown. “It shows our core values by giving to the research hospital to help fight against childhood cancer and many other life-threatening illnesses.” The campaign starts mid-October and runs until mid-December. Not only does the Melting Pot partake in this campaign, but it also supports St. Jude throughout the year with sales of chocolate fondue wafers.

St. Jude’s Research hospital was founded in 1962, and has made an enormous effort in breaking through childhood cancer ever since. Not only does the hospital take part in cancer research, but it also cares for and treats many different cancers and other life-threatening diseases in children from all over the world. Families of these children do not receive bills for treatment, travel, housing or any additional costs because it is all about helping their child survive. According to the St Jude’s organization, 75% of the budgeted costs of St. Jude are covered by public contributions.

Since the Melting Pot started collaborating with St. Jude, they have raised more than nine million dollars. “During the time of the Thanks and Giving campaign, the whole restaurant is focused mainly on selling the Donate and Dine cards for St. Jude,” explains Black. “What’s great is not only do our employees sell them while working but they also take time to sell these cards while out of the restaurant. It just shows how strongly we support this campaign.” The Donate and Dine cards are most often sold in the restaurant, but servers will also attempt to sell these cards outside of work to help raise more funds.

The SLC Melting Pot is one of 138 Melting Pot restaurants in the United States and is in the top 20 highest rank of raising. “The goal is to be in the top 10 within the next couple years as we keep getting better and better at raising money and selling these cards. We want to do as much as possible that we can do in this month of selling cards,” Black says. Although they haven’t yet reached top 10, top 20 is a huge accomplishment for the Melting Pot.

“The season of giving is a bunch of fun, people are very happy to give back to charity so it makes my job a little bit easier,” Amanda, an employee at the melting pot explains. Amanda is one of the highest selling employees at the Melting Pot for the Donate and Dine cards. One of her biggest tactics in getting donations is selling these cards outside of the restaurant to get more people seeing and hearing what it is all about. Just last week she sold up to 100 cards in one day of being outside City Creek letting shoppers know what the campaign is all about. This is a great example that not only does the melting pot make it a goal to get donations in the restaurant, but that they also make it a goal to get donations anywhere else that they can.

Melting Pot has been doing a great job while taking part in the Thanks and giving campaign for St. Jude’s Research Hospital. They have been increasing the amount of their donations every year and the goal just keeps getting set higher and higher by every employee working at the SLC melting pot. The campaign hasn’t ended just yet so make sure to get to the Melting Pot and get your chance to donate to the St Jude’s Research Hospital.