Restaurant Collaboration Opportunities 2023
Menu Item Give Back
Designate a menu item that will trigger a proceed donation and decide on what percentage give back works best for you.
Typically our partners choose to give $1 per dish, or do a 10% donation of the listed price, but we can work with you to customize a promotion if you’d like as well.
Provide menu item detail, photo, and your restaurant logo.
We want to showcase your generous involvement in this campaign, so please send us these items so we can best promote the menu item collaboration on social media, our website and in our monthly Ways to Give Back to the Bays mailing.
Show off your involvement in this important effort to your patrons!
Indicate on your menus that “A percentage of this menu item will be donated to Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Back to the Bays Initiative. Learn more at backtothebays.org”’ We will also provide you with an outreach kit featuring a Back to the Bays Supporter decal you can display in your storefront, and an educational postcard explaining how you are supporting water quality improvement, habitat and shellfish restoration by being involved in CCE’s Back to the Bays Initiative! The postcards can be displayed in the restaurant or distributed to patron when they receive their checks.
Participate in our Shell Recycling Program
We are currently expanding our Back to the Bays Oyster Shell Recycling Program efforts, and seeking partners who are interested in helping us collect shell needed for our spat-on-shell oyster reef projects. At this time we are primarily focusing on restaurants on the North Fork and Shelter Island, so if you are located in this geographic area and would like to participate please indicate that on your Back to the Bays Restaurant Participant Intake Form.
Special Events:
Back to the Bays Pairing Dinners
We are seeking host locations for our seasonal educational pairing dinners, that serve as a fundraiser for the Back to the Bays Initiative. CCE Marine Program experts provide brief informational lectures between courses on topics such as bay scallop restoration, building oyster reefs, kelp and seaweed aquaculture and more while enjoying a locally inspired tasting menu! We like to work with local wineries and breweries for the beverage pairings, as well as prominently feature local oyster growers on each dinners menu as a way to support these local industries. We are happy to work with vendors your restaurant typically works with, or bring in our partners from these industries!
Marine Program Pop-Up Parties
Hosting one of these passive outreach events offers a way to show your patrons you care about our local bays and are a partner of our Back to the Bays Initiative. By enabling CCE Marine Program an opportunity to set up an outreach tent featuring a touch tank, marketplace, art exhibit, and info table your guests can interact and learn about how they can give back to the bays and get involved with the work of our organization. We are seeking locations to host these events in Summer 2022. Set up can be confined to a 10x10 space and may take place any day of the week (ideally around “happy hour” or towards sunset.) for a two hour duration.
Back to the Bays Day
These events are designed with the goal of reaching as many people as possible and engaging them in our Back to the Bays Initiative. Awareness is raised on the importance of protecting and enhancing our marine environment, opportunities for involvement are introduced to the public, and funds are raised to support various water quality, shellfish, finfish, and habitat improvement projects.
Event typically features live music and art performances (artwork created during the event is auctioned off at the end of the day); Back to the Bays Membership Drive + Raffle; a fish printing tee shirt station; raw bar of oysters and clams; meet and greet with CCE’s scientists + educators and more!
Brush Strokes for the Bays Paint Nights
These crowd-pleasing “paint and sip” events allow guests to learn about the marine environment while creating a marine-themed work of art! Proceeds directly support CCE’s Marine Program’s Back to the Bays Stewardship Projects. These paint parties for a purpose have been hosted at numerous locations including restaurants, art centers, and our facilities.
CCE’s provides all staff and materials required. Educators provide a brief presentation on the topic or species at hand. A professional artist then guides even the most novice artists in creating a work of art inspired by the presentation, and CCE’s educators continue to provide passive education and outreach throughout the duration of the event.
Would you like to contact us to inquire about collaborating? Fill out the form below: