On a bountiful table when food is plentiful, those who have should consider those who don’t. This is what happens all summer long in Tucson when local independent restaurants from Tucson Originals partner with the Primavera Foundation.

Primavera Cooks invites apprentices (average culinary joes and janes) to go behind the scenes and plan and cook an entire meal while working side by side professional restaurant staff. This privilege costs $250 and there’s a wait to be an apprentice.

Then diners pay $125 for a 5-course meal paired with wines. Eight to 10 people sit at a table so old friendships are rekindled and new ones made. A portion of the dinner is tax deductable.

Every year the event grows and people return again and again bringing new friends along for the delicious ride.

Last year over $100,000 was raised for the Primavera Foundation, a local non-profit that helps the working poor and homeless find jobs and housing in order to become the cycle of poverty.