Community Impact

Reno Food & Drink celebrates more than exceptional food and drink. It exists to elevate Northern Nevada’s culinary community by spotlighting the chefs, restaurants, makers, hospitality professionals, and experiences that shape the region’s evolving food culture.

Through Reno Food & Drink Week and year-round programming, the platform encourages guests to explore local establishments, discover new favorites, revisit longtime staples, and engage more deeply with the people and businesses behind Reno’s hospitality community. At the same time, Reno Food & Drink recognizes that strong culinary communities are closely connected to strong local communities overall.

Many of the restaurants, businesses, makers, and hospitality professionals featured throughout the Reno Food & Drink ecosystem actively support local causes throughout the year. Community engagement, collaboration, and generosity are deeply woven into Northern Nevada’s hospitality culture, and Reno Food & Drink is committed to helping amplify that spirit through thoughtful visibility, participation opportunities, and community-centered experiences.

2026 Community Impact

Over the course of the 2026 Reno Food & Drink Week, a 14-day event, guests actively participated across the platform through app engagement, verified evaluations, social interaction, and event attendance.

A total of 174 app users actively participated during the event, submitting 328 verified guest evaluations and generating $18,201.90 in tracked receipts, with an average reported tip of 14.8 percent. While these figures represent only a portion of the total guest activity generated throughout the event, they provide a measurable snapshot of engagement across participating establishments.

Digital visibility also continued to expand throughout the event. Instagram generated 130,332 views and 4,438 interactions, Facebook reached 43,186 views with 2,441 engagements, and TikTok produced 52,996 video views, 3,302 likes, and 467 shares. The website generated 3,958 views with an average session duration of 3 minutes and 37 seconds, reflecting strong audience engagement and sustained interest across platforms.

Email continues to serve as a key connection point within the ecosystem, with a growing audience of 1,353 subscribers and strong ongoing engagement, including a 45.0 percent open rate and a 3.6 percent click rate.

Regional media coverage further expanded visibility throughout Northern Nevada. KOLO 8 News, FOX 11 News / News 4 / ARC Reno, and Reno Media Group helped amplify the event across the region, with every participating location receiving at least one dedicated highlight opportunity.

As Reno Food & Drink continues to grow, both participation and measurable impact are expected to expand alongside it.

Featured Community Organizations

Each year, Reno Food & Drink may highlight select nonprofit and community organizations whose work helps strengthen Northern Nevada through education, food access, community support, arts and culture, family services, animal welfare, youth development, veterans services, and other community-centered initiatives.

Featured organizations are selected based on alignment with Reno Food & Drink’s community values, audience, programming objectives, and regional relevance. Inclusion is curated and may vary from year to year.

Participating organizations remain fully independent entities. Reno Food & Drink is not a nonprofit organization, and donations are made directly to participating nonprofit organizations.

Community & Charitable Experiences

Throughout the year, Reno Food & Drink may also spotlight select community and charitable experiences that align with the platform’s values, audience, and mission of supporting Northern Nevada’s food-and-drink and hospitality community.

These experiences are independently produced by participating nonprofits, businesses, organizations, or event coordinators and may be shared with the Reno Food & Drink audience through the website, app, social media platforms, email communications, and other ecosystem channels.

Featured experiences may include fundraisers, tasting events, culinary celebrations, nonprofit galas, educational experiences, cultural events, and other community-centered gatherings. Participating experiences may also offer special pricing opportunities for eligible Reno Food & Drink members.

Select Reno Food & Drink Experiences may include a charitable contribution benefiting a featured nonprofit or community organization. When applicable, the benefiting organization will be clearly identified within the individual Experience listing.

Community Participation Opportunities

Reno Food & Drink encourages guests to engage with featured nonprofit and community organizations through optional participation opportunities integrated within the event ecosystem.

During Reno Food & Drink Week and select year-round activations, participants may have opportunities to earn points through qualifying community engagement activities, including charitable donations or approved social participation activities.

Examples may include:

• Donating directly to a featured nonprofit organization and uploading a qualifying donation receipt within the app
• Sharing approved nonprofit spotlight content or community-impact campaigns through social media participation activities

Participation structures, point values, eligibility requirements, earning windows, and qualifying activities may vary depending on the event, activation, or campaign.

Unless otherwise stated, charitable donations are made directly to participating nonprofit organizations and are not payments made to Reno Food & Drink.

Quarterly Community Spotlight

Beyond Reno Food & Drink Week, Reno Food & Drink and Hungry in Reno may periodically collaborate on coordinated Community Spotlight activations featuring select Northern Nevada nonprofit or community organizations.

Community Spotlight activations may include:

• Dedicated website features
• Coordinated social media promotion
• App-based participation opportunities
• Community-centered experiences or activations
• Optional Year-Round Points opportunities

Contribution structures, event formats, and participation opportunities may vary depending on the specific activation.

Our Commitment

Reno Food & Drink is intentionally designed to strengthen Northern Nevada’s culinary and hospitality ecosystem by creating meaningful connections between establishments, guests, makers, hospitality professionals, community organizations, and regional experiences.

The platform exists to encourage exploration, elevate local businesses, support hospitality culture, create memorable experiences, and contribute to a stronger sense of regional connection throughout Northern Nevada.

By combining culinary discovery, community engagement, storytelling, and thoughtfully curated experiences, Reno Food & Drink helps generate visibility and momentum that benefit participating establishments, local organizations, and the broader community alike.

We believe a thriving hospitality community and a thriving local community go hand in hand — and we remain committed to supporting both in thoughtful, authentic, and meaningful ways.