A Call For Action: Foodies Can Alleviate Hunger

Lately I have felt more and more compelled to do something to help as our country seems to sink into an ever-deepening recession. Two projects immediately came to mind. I hope that you choose to take up similar endeavors or support me in mine. All who donate to either cause will be entered into a drawing- 1 donor will receive a gift from Argentina as a token of my thanks. Just donate to the Walk For Hunger (and I will enter you with that contact info) or make a donation to Share Our Strength: Operation Frontline and e-mail me proof of your donation, and on June 1st I will mail a prize (think alfajores, a jar of chimichurri or dulce de leche to any address in the States.

First, I am holding grown-up versions of bake sales in my community. Rather than ask for a straight monetary donation, I will be selling prepared meals and baked goods (beef bourguignon, for example) to coworkers, friends and community members. All proceeds after cost will benefit Operation Frontline, a program run by Share Our Strength, whose volunteer chefs and nutritionists teach lower-income families how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a tight budget. If you wish to donate to Operation Frontline to support their efforts there is a "donate" link on the right column of my blog.

Second, on Sunday, May 3, I will be participating in Project Bread's 2009 Walk for Hunger. I know that we are all worried about the current economy, some of us feeling its effects more than others, but I hope that you can make a contribution to my cause, because ANY AMOUNT HELPS. Donate to Project Bread's Walk For Hunger. Search for my name, Caitlin McDonnell, and make your donation on my page. This is a tax deductible charitable contribution.

As someone who loves food-cooking it, eating it, talking about it (I love talking about it so much that I have a blog dedicated to food), as a chef, and future nurse practitioner I know that I am in a unique position to help fight hunger and malnutrition around Boston, in the state Massachusetts and I hope someday worldwide.

I see elderly people deciding between buying food or necessary medications because they cannot afford both.

Hunger also affects the working poor, who use more and more of their income to pay rent, heating oil, medical care, and childcare. In low-income communities throughout the state, one child in three lives in a family that struggles to put food on the table.

Project Bread-supported pantries and meal programs served 43.4 million meals last year alone. And the need for these programs is skyrocketing with additional layoffs, rising food prices and an unstable economy.

The money that I raise by walking as much as I can of the 20-mile route will directly help "hungry people," a phrase referring to more than 522,000 people in Massachusetts, including the state’s most vulnerable citizens — children, the elderly, the disabled, and the unemployed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please make a donation to this cause, any amount helps.

Money raised through The Walk for Hunger funds more than 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, and food salvage programs in 128 communities across Massachusetts.

The 20-mile Walk route weaves through Boston, Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge.