Last night, May 31st, the rain clouds disappeared just in time to bring together over 800 food fans and stars to officially launch EAT (RED) DRINK (RED) SAVE LIVES, a campaign to raise money and awareness for the Global Fund to fight AIDS. The campaign begins, TODAY, June 1st so we hope you are able share these efforts with your readers today.

Hosted by Mario Batali, guests were seen drinking Belvedere (RED) cocktails and included The Roots, Kathleen Turner, Carmen Ejogo, Vanessa Bayer, Tracy Anderson, Brendan Fallis, Hannah Bronfman, Jill Hennessy, Scott Lipps and many others.

The al fresco event – in partnership with Outstanding in the Field – saw guests seated at two long dinner tables stretching the length of Hudson River Park’s Pier 26, and very special (RED) menus generously created by ten all-star chefs – April Bloomfield and Joey Campanaro, David Burke and Josh Cap­on, Jonathan Waxman and Michael Symon,John Besh and Michael Schlow, and Mark Ladner and Elizabeth Falkner.

In addition to entertainment by The Roots, the menus featured locally sourced ingredients donated by Fresh Direct, paired with wines from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery Diamond Collection, while special (RED) Belvedere cocktails were mixed with fresh juice provided byHurom. Other generous supporters of The (RED) Supper include The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, LeCreuset, Fishs Eddy.

Spearheaded by Batali, the second annual EAT (RED) DRINK (RED) SAVE LIVES campaign offers food fans around the world a month-long program of special events and experiences, unique (RED) menu items and social media activations, all designed to raise money and awareness for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

Starting June 1, foodies everywhere will be able to eat and drink (RED) at more than 13,000 locations – from Los Angeles to London, Monaco to Mumbai and Sydney to Seattle.

It costs as little as 40¢ for two life-saving pills that, when taken daily, can keep a mother living with HIV alive and prevent her from passing the virus to her unborn baby.  Still, 600 babies are needlessly born with HIV every day. EAT (RED) DRINK (RED) SAVE LIVES rallies the culinary world to help get that number nearer to zero.  To learn more please visit Red.org/eat.

To date, (RED) has generated more than $315 million for the Global Fund to fight AIDS. Global Fund grants that (RED) supports have impacted more than 60 million people with prevention, treatment, counseling, HIV testing and care services