Tickets are on sale for a one-night-only charity dinner bringing together Portland chef Jewan Manuel, known for his Plant Based Papi brand, and Yamhill County's Durant Vineyards. The event lands on September 17 at Blockhouse PDX in Northwest Portland, and 20 percent of net proceeds will benefit No Kid Hungry.
The evening opens with an experiential olive oil tasting paired with Durant estate-grown sparkling wine on a garden patio, before guests move indoors to a glasshouse dining room for a multi-course dinner, according to Wine Business. Diners will get a multi-course plant-based menu paired with Durant wines, and they will also have a chance to watch Manuel cook in an open kitchen, as reported by KATU.
Durant owner Paul Durant said the collaboration offers a chance to pair Yamhill County wines and estate-milled olive oils with creative plant-based dishes while raising money for child hunger relief, per the same Wine Business account. It's a fitting match for two Oregon food businesses that, despite sitting at opposite ends of the state's culinary timeline, both trace their identity to the land.
A Half-Century of Farming Meets a New Wave of Plant-Based Cooking
The Durant family has farmed in the Willamette Valley for more than 50 years, planting wine grapes in the Dundee Hills back in 1973 as early industry pioneers, according to Durant Vineyards. The farm originally grew walnuts, hazelnuts, and cherries before the family planted olive trees in 2004 and opened Oregon's first commercial olive mill in 2008, the same profile notes.
Durant Olive Mill now manages a 15-acre orchard in Dayton and runs the Pacific Northwest's only Olioteca, producing extra virgin olive oils that have repeatedly won gold at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, according to Durant Vineyards. Oregon sits at the northern geographic limit for commercial olive cultivation, making that milling operation something of an outlier in American agriculture.
Chef Jewan Manuel brings a different kind of history to the table. Raised in Flint, Michigan, where he dual-enrolled in culinary school during high school, Manuel moved to Portland in 2017 and launched Plant Based Papi in 2018 and 2019, according to the brand's own about page. What began as pop-up events and sold-out underground tasting dinners grew into a brick-and-mortar venue that opened in December 2020.
Building a Brand Beyond the Plate
Manuel has continued expanding his footprint in Portland's food and creative scenes. In 2025 and 2026, he partnered with local maker Woolly Made on a biodegradable plant-leather product and hosted “A Seat at the Table,” a panel series spotlighting Black leaders in hospitality, according to Plant Based Papi's website.
The dinner itself will unfold at Blockhouse PDX, an intimate event venue in Northwest Portland's Slabtown neighborhood built around a chef-inspired open kitchen and set within the plant-filled grounds of Pomarius Nursery, per Travel Portland. The space is known for blending industrial design with greenhouse greenery, letting guests move from an outdoor garden setting into an indoor dining room built around the cooking action.
Why the 20 Percent Donation Matters in Oregon
The choice of No Kid Hungry as beneficiary connects the dinner to a food insecurity crisis playing out across the state. The Oregon Food Bank's 2026 State of Hunger report found that 1 in 6 children in Oregon faces food insecurity, and visits to food assistance sites across Oregon and Southwest Washington grew 51 percent over a two-year period to a record 2.9 million visits, according to the Oregon Food Bank.
Federal food security data reported by Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon in January 2026 showed that roughly 1 in 8 Oregonians and 1 in 6 children experienced food insecurity in 2024, a crisis the advocacy group warns is worsening following national cuts to SNAP benefits, per Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. No Kid Hungry itself estimates that as many as 106,000 to 114,000 children across Oregon experience hunger, a figure driving its national campaign to fund school breakfast and summer meal programs, according to the organization's Center for Best Practices.
Against that backdrop, a single evening pairing Dundee Hills wine with Portland's plant-based dining scene carries stakes beyond the dinner table. Tickets remain on sale for the September 17 event at Blockhouse PDX.
