Miami Courant

Every year thousands of people descend on the sand for the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One (SOBEWFF®), but did you know that 100 percent of the net proceeds go right back to help support FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and students like Samantha Wagner?

Wagner is one of the 1,200 FIU students and volunteers who will be working the more than 100 events in Miami-Dade and Broward counties from Feb. 23-26. The senior, who is scheduled to graduate with her bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management in May, has worked on the Festival for the last four years. Besides adding work experience to her resume, she gets a scholarship that she can use to pay for tuition or any part of her education.

“The scholarship I get to work the South Beach Wine & Food Festival relieves my financial burden because as an out-of-state student, it can be difficult to find scholarships or paid work opportunities that could help pay for my education,” said Wagner.

The four-day Festival returns to the sand with more than 100 events spanning Miami-Dade and Broward counties. This year, the Festival marks its 22nd anniversary of FIU students helping to run the nationally recognized event with more than $34 million raised to date. In addition, dozens of FIU alumni participate in the Festival and help run it.

As a member of FIU, the Festival is offering a special family discount of 15% (Fiupromo15) that applies to the following events:

• Thursday, February 23 - Burger Bash presented by Schweid & Sons® hosted by Emeril Lagasse
• Friday, February 24 - Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives LIVE hosted by Guy Fieri
• Saturday, February 25 - Tacos & Tequila presented by Tequila Cazadores hosted by Danny Trejo
• Saturday, February 25 - Goya Foods' Grand Tasting Village featuring Publix Culinary Demonstrations sponsored by Sub-Zero Group Southeast
• Saturday, February 25 - Make It Miami: A Tapas & Craft Cocktail Party hosted by Alessandra Garcia-Lorido and Gio Gutierrez
• Sunday, February 26 - Our Sunday Table: Jazz Brunch with The Grey and Friends hosted by Mashama Bailey part of The NYT Cooking Series
• Sunday, February 26 - Goya Foods' Grand Tasting Village featuring Publix Culinary Demonstrations sponsored by Sub-Zero Group Southeast
• Sunday, February 26 - Goya Foods' Swine & Wine hosted by Enrique Santos and Fernando DesaSunday, February 26 - BACARDĺ Carnival hosted by Andrew Zimmern

The discount can be redeemed by using Fiupromo15 at checkout.

There will be limited inventory for each event, so buy your tickets sooner rather than later.

For students like Wagner, ticket purchases lead to scholarships, which means financial freedom. “The Festival is an amazing opportunity to not only gain invaluable work experience, but volunteers have an opportunity to receive scholarship money, which can be a lifesaver,” ended Wagner.

For the complete line-up of Festival events and tickets, visit sobewff.org.

Original source can be found here.