Nat Sherman Raises $100,000 To Benefit U.S. Food Banks

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 12/08/2015

In celebration of Nat Sherman's 85th anniversary, the New York-based tobacconist hosted a string of cigar dinners to both honor the milestone and raise money for hunger-related charities. The series of dinners culminated in November at New York City's Grand Havana Room, where the company announced that, through its dinners, they raised more than $100,000 for various charities.

"It's not uncommon to celebrate an anniversary with a cigar dinner," said Michael Herklots, vice president of retail and brand development at Nat Sherman. "But it occurred to us, while we are privileged to be able to enjoy good wine, food and cigars, there are many people in our city who struggle to put food on the table. So we figured that while we celebrate, it's only appropriate we give back, too."

The majority of the charitable proceeds from each dinner-which were held in Indianapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Bedford, New Hampshire and New York City-benefitted local food banks. However, a quarter of the proceeds from each night were set aside for City Harvest, an organization working to alleviate hunger in New York City.

"Although we want to help out charities in our host cities, we are a New York company and felt it was right to set a special portion aside for our neighbors," said Herklots. Nat Sherman raised over $30,000 for City Harvest, which, according to Rebecca Fontes, the charity's director of new business development, "will help feed over 1,200 families for a whole month."

Proceeds were raised through ticket sales and silent auctions that accompanied the dinners. Among the auction items were a selection of exclusive Nat Sherman Timeless Dominican, Sterling and 1930 cigars in Nat's Celebración size-a unique double-tapered figurado that is not commercially available. Enditem