Make your Valentine gift to the people of Haiti

Love is a verb. Take action.

Join the World Food Programme in their efforts to help sustain and support the people of Haiti.

Give generously to CAMBA's Beyond Hunger food pantry

As the days get shorter and evenings colder, the usage at the CAMBA Food Pantry is up and the need to keep the shelves fully stocked is greater than ever

Throughout New York City, there is a surge in need for emergency food. According to the Food Bank of New York City’s 2009 NYC Emergency Food Survey, more than nine in every ten emergency food sites experienced an increase in the number of individuals requesting emergency food for the first time.

As a result, emergency food providers are facing critical shortfalls in their ability to serve those who desperately need help.

CAMBA’s Beyond Hunger Food Emergency Food Pantry served more than 2,800 individuals this past October; in October 2008,  the pantry served 1,046 individuals. This is a 270% increase in utilization in the past year alone.

To help address this unprecedented need, please make a charitable donation of food or cash to support CAMBA’s 2009 Holiday Food Drive.

Support the CAMBA Annual Holiday Food Drive in the following ways:

1. Make a contribution of food to our pantry.

The kinds of food items that we need the most are perishable, whole foods that will keep (including potatoes, squash, apples, etc.) and non-perishable goods that are low in sugar, salt and saturated fat, including but not limited to: beans, rice, cereal, pasta, peanut butter, canned fruits and vegetables, canned fish and meat and 100% fruit juice.

If you would like to donate food items, please contact Anne Christian, the pantry coordinator, at (718)282-3082 or e-mail her at [email protected]

2. Send a gift of cash to (or DONATE ONLINE):

CAMBA Beyond Hunger Emergency Food Pantry
CAMBA, Inc.
1720 Church Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11226

3. Spread the word about CAMBA’s Food Drive! We greatly appreciate your charity during this holiday season. Tweet this request for donations, share on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks or organize a food drive at your office.

World Food Programme inspiring 'Gift of Hope'

The family feasts are finished and the parades wound down. We have gathered together to celebrate our blessings and the abundance in our lives.

This Thanksgiving and in the upcoming holiday season, please remember those who are less fortunate with a lasting Gift of Hope to the World Food Programme.

This holiday season, make a difference by giving family and friends a life-changing gift… the Gift of Hope. Look at our new catalogue with 12 ways to fight hunger, and find the gift that inspires you most. Your gift will bring happiness to a loved one and spread hope to people bearing the burden of hunger each and every day. Hope means a brighter future when a child receives the gift of a school lunch; it means survival during an emergency when a family receives the gift of nutritious biscuits; and it means a healthy newborn baby when a mother receives the gift of fortified food. Find the true meaning of the holiday season by giving the Gift of Hope. Your personalized e-card that is sent when you make this lasting gift will also inspire generosity of spirit in others.

Nutritious food for a pregnant or new mother - Help a woman give her child a better chance from the start. Utensils for 25 students to eat lunch at school - No child should go hungry.   Nutritious biscuits for 100 victims of emergencies - Time saved means lives saved.

Donations to the Allie Noelle Whaley Memorial Fund

This week as we prepare to give thanks for all our blessings, please take a minute to do something good.

Ten-month-old Allie Noelle Whaley won't have a first Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Born with congenital mitral stenosis, a severe blockage of the heart's mitral valve, she  died October 25, 2009.

The family has insufficient health care coverage and huge medical expenses.

In honor of Allie Noelle Whaley, Doc's Gun & Pawn (506 S. Memorial Drive, Greenville, NC 27834). is raffling a $1,000 Shopping Spree. Tickets are $5 and the drawing is December 11.

Anyone interested in contributing to The Allie Noelle Whaley Memorial Fund  should contact:

Allie Noelle Whaley Memorial Fund

282 Bowen Circle

Ayden, NC 28513

Fancy Food Show to donate 100,000 pounds of food to Bay area needy

Exhibitors at the 35th Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco plan to donate more than 100,000 pounds of specialty foods and beverages to Bay Area residents in need.

The donation was announced today by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the show’s organizer.

The Winter Fancy Food Show will take place from January 17 – 19, 2010, at Moscone Center, where more than 1,400 exhibitors will present 80,000 products from 50 countries. The donation will be made at the close of the trade event, the largest marketplace for specialty food on the West Coast.

For the second year, the NASFT will work with Feed the Hungry to collect and distribute specialty products to a network of community programs. Last year, hundreds of volunteers collected and dispersed more than three tractor-trailer loads of food, including top-quality chocolate, cheese, pasta sauces and beverages.

“With so many Americans experiencing food insecurity today, our exhibitors are especially eager to help alleviate hunger. We are pleased they can supply products that typically don’t flow into food pantries,” said Ann Daw, president of the NASFT.

Stefan Radelich, executive director of Feed the Hungry, an international hunger relief organization, said the food from the Fancy Food Show will be “a beacon of hope and encouragement.”

Last year exhibitors provided enough food to help more than 5,400 area residents. “When they open their grocery bags at home or in a shelter and find foods of the highest quality mixed in, it takes ‘somebody cares’ to a whole new level,” Radelich said.

The NASFT, a not-for-profit trade association based in New York City, has a long commitment to food-related charities.

This year marks the 20th year that the NASFT has worked with City Harvest, one of New York City’s largest anti-hunger organizations. Following its Summer Fancy Food Show, exhibitors donated more than 200,000 pounds of food last June and helped keep one food pantry from shutting down.

Eat well and nurture Mother Earth with il Buco

Go to lunch at il Buco, eat well and protect your Mother - earth mother, that is.

For one week, Tuesday, April 21 to Saturday, April 25,   il Buco (47 Bond Street) is taking 15% off lunch only for all guests.  The restaurant will donate all of the discount to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's oldest and largest global environmental network.

All proceeds will benefit the IUCN's work protecting the Amazon Rainforest, known as the Lung of the Earth.

For example, guests who spend $100 on lunch will pay only $85 and il Buco will donate $15.

Owner Donna Lennard and friend and professional adviser Alberto Avalle, visionaries behind il Buco, support the sustainable agriculture movement.  They are dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of sustainable practices which can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth.

Lunch hours for the tiny, charming and antique-filled restaurant are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. 

CAMBA Food Drive March 9-13

I write near constantly about good food. The preparation of a meal, the gathering together of people to share that meal - even if it's just two - is crucial to the fabric of our daily lives. 

That's why I'd like to dedicate today's post to the people who don't have enough to eat.  For those people - many of them children - having a meal is about survival.

According to the NY Coalition Against Hunger, there are an estimated 1.3 million New York households without adequate food resources, and one in 5 children go hungry.

No one should go without food.

CAMBA, a non-profit agency providing services to connect people with quality of life enhancing opportunities, is conducting their annual food and book drive March 9-13.  I urge all to participate in this life-affirming drive.

Local donations can be picked up by making arrangements with Mary-Beth Shine at [email protected] or by calling 718.287.2600 x305.  Or you may donate online.

Food collected will benefit CAMBA's emergency food pantry - one of the very few that offers participants choice, the option to shop for what they need. Books collected will be distributed to the men, women and children living in the organization's homeless shelters.