FIU family can sip and save at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival® for a good cause

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 22^nd 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: