Menu for Hope 6

Is there anything worse than last minute Christmas shopping? That frenzy to find something, anything for your friends and loved ones. Well here's an option that's easy (you can do it in your PJs on your laptop), inexpensive and most of all, good for the world. Instead of getting Grandma another Snuggie, why not make a donation in her name to the Sixth Annual Menu for Hope? This year's drive benefits the World Food Programme's Purchase for Progress.

Per Chez Pim, the organizer of this massive food blogger event: P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improve farming practices and puts more cash directly into their pockets in return for their crops. This will also help buoy local economy by creating jobs and income locally. We food bloggers understand the importance of buying locally and supporting our local farms, P4P helps do the same for farmers in low income countries around the world. More on P4P at http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress.

And with each $10 donation, you purchase a raffle ticket for ANY food blogger supplied gift - you can win a multi-course meal at a 2-star Michelin restaurant, you can win all kinds of wines and chocolates, you can win stays in beautiful locations around the world (from Santa Barbara to New England to Italy and everywhere in between). Or dozens of other prizes.

But most of all you know that you made a little difference to some farmer out there who's struggling to get by. So rush on over to the handy, dandy donation form and get going.

And did we mention that this is a nice little tax deduction for your '09 taxes? It's the gift that just keeps on giving.

Menu For Hope 5

I'm sure many of you have already heard about Chez Pim's Menu For Hope, a raffle that food bloggers around the world help put on to raise funds for charity. But just in case you haven't, or if you still haven't donated, here's the scoop:

This year's raffle is to benefit the World Food Program's school lunch initiative in Lesotho, Africa. Last year they helped the WFP set up this program that benefits kids in one of the poorest parts of Africa, while also helping local farmers - all of the food is bought locally.

For every $10 donated, you get a raffle ticket which can be applied to any of the multitude of donated gifts from bloggers around the world. You can get wine dinners, kitchen appliances, personal guided tours, not to mention the plethora of food and wine gift packages put together by people who actually love food (and wine). You can see a master list of prizes here.

It's a worthy cause, it's tax deductible and it comes with the chance to win some amazing prizes. So if you've got an extra $10 (or more), head on over and check it out.