Menu For Hope – Divina Cucina

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Oh, wow, I just placed my order of raffle tickets for Menu for Hope. And I had to include a bid to hang with my friend Judy Witts Francini of Divina Cucina's. The Diva for Italian cooking and all things food is offering tickets for two for her “Monday at the Market Tour in Florence” (Italy).

The markets in Florence are truly wonderful – practically and sensually. The energy there is so enriching! But it can be a bit intimidating to a newbie. I do not know much about cooking or shopping, so I had to bid on the Fabulous Judy’s prize. She will take you around tasting, smelling, touching, learning & shopping. Then you get to have lunch at a place she frequents. Value is 250 euros and the
prize code is EU24.

Read more: Divina Cucina – Menu for Hope Prize Details

Quoted from Judy’s blog entry:

Every year Chez Pim with the help of bloggers all over the world, runs the Menu for Hope. It is a win-win situation, by participating in the auction of items donated, we raise money for a United Nations Project. This year, we are supporting a new initiative at the WFP called Purchase for Progress (P4P). P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improves 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.

Go ahead, the prize list is delectable. Besides Divina Cucina and yesterday’s blog entry about Ms. Adventures in Italy, there are an incredible selection of donated prizes, including lots and lots of wines. Indulge and help others to grow.

Menu For Hope – Ms. Adventures in Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Last year about this time, I joined other bloggers from Europe and donated a prize (in my case, I gave away six of my giclées on watercolor paper of various photographs of Italy) to help the Menu For Hope program. This year I was not organized enough to get it together in time.

However, my friend and fellow blogger Sara Rosso aka Ms. Adventures in Italy has got it goin’ on.

What is Menu for Hope?

Quoting from Ms. Adventures here:

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign hosted by Chez Pim and a revolving group of food bloggers around the world. Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired her to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. The campaign has since become a yearly affair. For the past three years, Menu for Hope raised nearly a quarter of million dollars in support of the good work of the UN World Food Programme, helping to feed hungry people worldwide.

This year, we are supporting a new initiative at the WFP called Purchase for Progress (P4P). P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improves 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.

Basically, this is a raffle of prizes donated by bloggers. Each ticket is only $10 and you choose the prize(s) that you are interested in. Ms. Adventures is offering two incredible prizes this year (and I WILL be buying a raffle ticket or two for those luscious Italian chocolates myself), so please follow this link to her site. It explains the raffle process, as well as telling you more about the prizes available.
http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2009/12/12/made-in-italy-chocolate-basket-mega-mix-of-moleskine-my-menu-for-hope-vi-bid-items/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MsAdventuresInItaly+(Ms.+Adventures+in+Italy)

Or go straight to the source: Menu For Hope: www.chezpim.com

Please help – and get rewarded for helping others learn how to use the resources they have. This program is empowering others! Buy as many raffle tickets as you can and then spread the word about Menu for Hope. Thank you!

Art Images of Italy Winner

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

This past holiday season, I was one of many bloggers who offered prizes for the Menu for Hope V raffle fundraiser for the UN World Food Program. Those who donated funds in the form of buying raffle tickets were able to choose which prizes they would like to try to win.

This morning I mailed out my donated prize: the six giclée on watercolor paper of some of my images of Italy. The lucky bidder was and is . . . Ms. Alison Violano

Congratulations, Alison!


If you like the images you see in the included photo, please know that they are also available as giclée on canvas. I am selling these larger (16 x 20 inches) giclée to help raise money to pay for teeth for Rudy Sanchez, a young man that I have mentored since 1992. Rudy was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome and has been having surgeries to improve his life and his looks ever since he was born. After more reconstruction surgery in his jaw, his family does not have the $13,000 that Medicare will not pay for Rudy to have a set of choppers.

If you would like to help or if you would like to know more about Rudy and Treacher Collins Syndrome, please visit:

Rudy, Treacher Collins Syndrome, and Italy

Menu For Hope

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

We have only a couple of days left in the Menu for Hope V raffle. The prizes are incredibly tempting and wonderful. Won’t you please indulge? We participating bloggers who offer the prizes have not yet reached our goal to surpass last years’ donations of over $90,000.

While I am offering 6 giclée prints of some of my images of Italy, I will not at all be offended if you make a donation and try to win other prizes. The important thing is to help those less fortunate get a chance to help themselves through education, sustainable farming, and other choices.

Give the gift of a voucher

Donation Instructions:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at
http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2008/12/15/menu-for-hope-europe-prizes/ or Chez Pim

2. Go to the donation site at www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.

3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

6. Bids on prizes will be accepted from December 15-24th. The last day to bid on a prize is December 24th.

7. Check back on Chez Pim on January 12, when Pim will announce the result of the entire raffle. Sara Rosso will also announce the winners of European prizes here.

Understand What You Need

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Happy Winter Solstice! I have been “dumpster diving” since at least college. I cannot believe the scores one can find in the trash -- often of brand new items! And I am changing my Italian landlady Doria’s mind about finding things in the rifiuti as well.

A few weeks back I brought home the four-wheeled square base of a chair that I found in the trash on Via dei Mezzo, here in Florence, Italy. I cleaned it up, loaded it on my bike, and am now using it as a sculpture stand. Doria teased me when she saw this addition to my room, “Kelly, where will you sleep?” I responded, “Maddaiiiiiiii . . .” with appropriate hand gestures, of course.

But on the 12th, I was riding home with some of my drawings tied on the rack over my back tire and I saw a REAL Christmas tree leaning against a trash bin along the Lungarno. It was still wrapped up for transport. Incredibile! Fearing for my drawings, I left the tree there.

At home Doria was dubious, assuming I saw a plastic tree (or maybe that it was not truly in the trash). I did not have time to go retrieve it myself since I was meeting a friend at the Odeon Cinema soon. But I rode along the Lungarno again on my way back to the central part of Florence, and sent her a message that the tree was there and smelled fantastico.

When Luca arrived home, they took the car and had their first successful adventure in dumpster diving. I am a “proud parent”! And at least they know I did not steal it! They love the tree, decorating it the next day and remarking on how large it is and how unbelievable that someone just left it in the garbage.

All this to preface that while moving through town, I always keep my eye on the trash bins. I rode past this TV set (pictured here) by a bin one morning on Borgo Santa Croce. I turned back though because of the message someone had written on the screen. This is one of my favorite photos I have taken.

The profound in the simply stated: “Understand What You Need” has become a mantra of sorts for me. (And no, I did not want the Teh-Voo, as it is called in Italian.)

So, in the spirit of Christmas and knowing that most of us have more than we need (and even want), please think of buying a raffle ticket in the Menu for Hope V project. Prizes are being awarded by various bloggers (including yours truly).

What I like best about this particular fund-raiser is that the money goes not only to buy food for children, but also to help people to help themselves so they will have a more secure future. This type of giving is empowering! And everyone benefits.

Click here for prize list and donation information.

Menu For Hope - Stop World Hunger

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I met fellow blogger Sara Rosso in Florence, Italy, in April 2008. Her blog is called “Ms. Adventures in Italy” and she writes beautifully about food and shares great images too. Sara is currently the “Host for Europe” for a special program to fight hunger around the world. It is called Menu for Hope.

This is a fund-raiser in the form of a raffle, with bloggers worldwide offering prizes for your enjoyment. I just found out about this project and decided to jump onboard.

My Prize for you (Code: EU25):
Art Images of Italy: 6 giclées of Florence and Venice
Printed on thick quality (Arches Infinity textured) watercolor paper using UV pigmented inks for longevity.
The long dimension of each image is 10 inches (about 25 cm).
Valued at over $200.
Plus, I will ship worldwide from Florence, Italy.

Details on how to bid are listed below . . . but hurry, bidding ends 24 December 2008!

The Programme

In the interest of time, I want to quote Sara:
This year’s beneficiary of Menu for Hope is the
UN World Food Programme. WFP is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good.
With the success of last year’s campaign to support the school lunch program in Lesotho, we are going to continue our support to the same program. During the duration of Menu for Hope V, we will be posting updates from the kids and the farmers we supported this past year.
If you weren’t around last year for Menu for Hope 4, let me explain a bit about why we are supporting this particular program. We chose to support the school lunch program because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive, but keeps them in school so that they learn the skills to feed themselves in the future. We chose to support the program in Lesotho because it is a model program in local procurement - buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

Who Collects the Money?

NOT the bloggers! We use a very good online fundraising company called Firstgiving, who has worked with us since the first Menu for Hope years ago.

Donors can make an online donation with a credit card. Firstgiving collects and processes the payments and, at the end of the campaign, transfers the donations in one lump sum to the WFP. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The bloggers never touch the money. The WFP don’t waste overheads on processing mini-donations, the majority of which were between $10-$50, that’s a whole lot of tenners to make up $90K. Firstgiving does all the work and collects a small fee, which include the credit card processing charges.

Last year, Firstgiving gave back 1% of the total amount raised in lieu of a discount on their processing fee. Thank you Firstgiving, we appreciated it very much!

Donation Instructions:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at
http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2008/12/15/menu-for-hope-europe-prizes/ or
Chez Pim
2. Go to the donation site at www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5
and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize
of your choice. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal
Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation.
You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize
code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets
for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box
and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact
you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with
anyone.
6. Bids on prizes will be accepted from December 15-24th. The last day to bid on a prize is December 24th.
7. Check back on Chez Pim on January 12, when Pim will announce the result of the entire raffle. Sara Rosso will also announce the winners of European prizes here.