This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
You can donate to @PhillyEducation at your favorite STARR restaurant by donating on that extra line on your bill for Support Our Schools! — STARR Restaurants (@StarrRestaurant) March 4, 2014
by Jeseamy Muentes
Restaurateur Stephen Starr is asking diners to tack a little extra onto their bills to help support the cash-strapped School District.
Over the next four weeks, and possibly longer, patrons of Starr’s 21 Philadelphia restaurants — which he estimates at 40,000 a week — will be alerted to the fundraising campaign and be given the option of donating money by adding to the bill’s total. Starr made the announcement along with Superintendent William Hite on Tuesday at Starr’s Rittenhouse Square eatery Parc.
The goal of the "Support Our Schools" campaign is to raise $100,000 to go toward funding three areas: multimedia labs, summer internships, and school playgrounds, which includes the Playworks initiative, an effort to have a coach facilitate organized activities at recess. Starr’s company, Starr Restaurant Organization, will contribute $25,000.
The idea for the initiative came, Starr said, after Mayor Nutter’s speech to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, in which he asked the city’s business community to make the full and fair funding of public education a top priority this year.
Hite called it an example of how "individuals can use their respective sphere to help the School District.”