Social Meals startupGrub With Ushas just anounceda new charity mealwith investor Howard Hartenbaum ofAugust Capitalat the restaurantTamarine, in Palo Alto on Monday Sept. 26. The restaurant is a favorite with the venture crowd, and the charity meal is a great opportunity for a few plucky founders to pitch their companies. Even if those who can’t secure funding from the encounter are in for a memorable meal. Tamarine is a Vietnamese restaurant where the Yelp reviewers tend towax poetic.

Grub With Us is a Y Combinator company that connects strangers over group meals at a curated selection of restaurants, and payment is taken in advance directly off its website. We’verecently covered, the Venice, CA startup which touts high profile investors likeAshton Kutcher, and whom first launched the charity meals this summer. Diners bid on the chance to join the meal, and the proceeds are donated to charity.

Lucky charity meals diners have joined Alfred Lin and Mark Dempster, partners atSequoia Capital; Alexis Ohanian, co-founder ofRedditand marketing guru at travel siteHipmunk(both YC), John O’Farell and Scott Weiss, partners atAndreesen HorowitzGarry Tan, partner atY Combinator, as well as partners fromNEAandFirst Round Capital.

The meal hosts get to designate a charity, and money raised has gone to benefit The Institute of Higher Awesome Studies, Japan earthquake relief, Keep Food Legal, and Second Harvest Food Bank, and Grub With Us development director Sen Sugano says the most successful meal raised more than $5,000 for charity.

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Sugano says that a number of participants in the charity meals have gotten first round interviews, and Grub With Us is now expanding the program to include hosts outside of the tech community, including influencers in the non-profit sector and elsewhere.

Readers of The Next Web have the first chance to bid on the charity meal at Tamarine.

Story byChikodi Chima

Chikodi is the West Coast editor of The Next Web, a multimedia producer and entrepreneur who travels the world in search of innovative foods(show all)Chikodi is the West Coast editor of The Next Web, a multimedia producer and entrepreneur who travels the world in search of innovative foods and spicy tech. Asked to choose a favorite, he would answer “both.” Chikodi loves apps,does Twitter,Linkedinand has a thing forTumblr.

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