Woman creates wine label to benefit food bank

Sip a glass of wine while helping the food bank

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Food Bank has been the recipient of The Gracious Gift over the past couple of years. That donation has translated into over 83,000 meals in San Antonio.

The gift starts in the form of a bottle of wine. The idea was created by local resident Cindy Sebek after she learned a few years ago that one out of four kids in San Antonio go to bed hungry.

"I thought we were talking about a third world country," Sebek said.

Getting to work, she wanted to provide wine lovers with a nice tasting wine while helping those in need with a meal. Sebek developed her own label, The Gracious Gift Wine, found a California producer and got exclusive rights to sell in H-E-B's across the state.

Across the state, nearly 158,000 meals have been funded. Meals stay in the purchase city or town. Seeing the success Sebek decided to take it up a notch by rebranding and going with another California Producer, Vintage Wine Estates.

"The label looks similar but has a lot more elegance to it. The same you see on the outside you see on the inside the wine definitely has more elegant tasting profile," Sebek said.

"Maybe the packaging’s changed but the mission has remained the same," said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank.

The move comes just in time for the holidays.

"You can meet the need of sharing some holiday cheer but it's for a cause it's make a difference right here in our community," Cooper said.

Like the difference Sebek is making.

"My commitment is just to continue to try and get the very best products in these bottles so that people can go and get great quality wine and also give back without really having to try," Sebek said.

Visit the Gracious Gift Wine website for more information.


About the Author:

David Sears, a native San Antonian, has been at KSAT for more than 20 years.