Del Ray Café Announces 5th Anniversary Donation to ACT for Alexandria

In honor of its fifth anniversary, Del Ray Café announces it will donate 5% of its May sales to ACT for Alexandria. In addition to Del Ray Café’s 5%, a surprise matching donation was announced by Wendy Brown of the Maury Lane Fund at ACT for Alexandria and Jen Walker—McEnearney Associates, Inc. REALTORS.

ACT for Alexandria (ACT) is a community foundation that supports and encourages nonprofit excellence and strengthens leadership within nonprofits by investing in infrastructure based programs and organizational needs.  ACT has invested more than $800,000 in capacity building grants to deserving Alexandria nonprofits since 2005.

Laurent and Margaret Ticer Janowsky opened Del Ray Café (DRC) on May 1, 2012 in a former 1925 home converted to a 48-seat restaurant in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. DRC is a French café serving local, natural and organic products for breakfast, lunch, brunch (weekends/holiday) and dinner. Del Ray Café’s mission to “Buy Local” in every aspect of its business extends to its annual giving. As a result, the community recently voted Del Ray Café the 2017 Heart of Del Ray, awarded annually by the Del Ray Business Association.

“When we came up with the idea to make a charitable donation for our anniversary, ACT came first to mind,” said Laurent. Margaret added, “Witnessing first-hand the enormous outpouring of generosity by our neighbors during April’s Spring2ACTion made us realize how far-spread our community’s interests and concerns are. We decided that our donation could benefit the absolute most number of people through ACT for Alexandria.”

When Laurent and Margaret announced their gift to ACT, John Porter, president/chief executive officer, immediately stated that the funds would be added to the Community Grants Program. “This generous gift is perfectly timed to correspond with our spring community grants, which opened applications last week and will be awarded in June,” said John. “The grants provide support for leadership development and long-term financial growth and sustainability of Alexandria-serving charities.” More details about ACT and the grants program can be found online at www.actforalexandria.org .

This generous donation, coupled with the matching grants, is expected to be between $23,000-$30,000. The donation will be presented to ACT on June 2, 2017 at DRC