The Nifty Foodie

Last week, I posted about how Yahoo has generously donated $20,000 to Share our Strength on behalf of Foodbuzz bloggers and readers. It’s amazing how many children this amount of money can help!

Since Share our Strength is a national organization, there are many parts of the US that are taking strides locally through No Kid Hungry. Since I’m from the New Orleans area, I was especially interested in reading about the endeavors out there.

No Kid Hungry in New Orleans partnered with local organizations, such as Second Harvest, Greater New Orleans Afterschool Partnership, Kingsley House, Tulane Community Health Care Centers, marketumbrella.org and Edible Schoolyard NOLA to help children in New Orleans have nutritious meals in the school and summer programs, as well as at home. I’m also glad to read that head start programs in New Orleans hold classes for low income families called “Cooking Matters“, which helps families plan and make nutritious meals for their families on a limited budget.

It’s so wonderful to read about the programs being offered in New Orleans. While it’s known as a great spot to travel, there are well over 32,000 students in New Orleans alone who qualify for free or reduced lunch programs, so a program like No Kid Hungry is definitely a necessity in the New Orleans area!

More information about the No Kid Hungry program in New Orleans can be found here.

Here’s more information about other state and city partnerships that are taking place with Share our Strength and No Kid Hungry! It’s amazing reading what everyone around the country is doing, and seeing that there are so many ways that we can all help with this fight against childhood hunger!

And don’t forget to join me in support of Yahoo!’s $20,000 commitment to Share our Strength!

Here are two quick things you can do raise awareness about this important cause:

1. Make Yahoo! your homepage now. (click on the button in my sidebar or click here)
2. Share the campaign with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

I usually don’t post about anything but recipes on this blog, but please read this post…it’s an important one!

Child hunger.

It’s a very sad reality, but in America alone, 1 in every 4 kids is struggling with hunger. 25%!

I know one of the things that you’re immediately thinking about…free lunch programs at schools. Sadly, did you know that the federal nutrition programs are so underutilized that over 16 million children who are eligible for the meals do not receive them?

There’s an organization out there called Share our Strength, whose goal is to end child hunger. A hefty goal, but I am so glad to see the strides that this organization is taking to help our youth. You might have heard of some of their fundraising efforts, like Taste of the Nation and the Great American Bake Sale.

In addition to those fundraisers, larger companies are starting to help with the fight against child hunger as well!

Yahoo! has generously committed to donate $20,000 to Share Our Strength on behalf of all of us, the Foodbuzz community of publishers and readers. Isn’t that awesome!?

To put things in perspective, just $1 will feed 10 nutritious meals to children this summer, so this donation will impact so many of our youth.

Why am I posting this?

 I was chosen as one of the Brand Ambassadors for the  Foodbuzz/Yahoo! Support Share our Strength Program! I decided to apply as an Ambassador, because I love helping when I can, and if I can use my blog to raise awareness, why not? I was offered a gift card to restaurants.com for being an ambassador, but I opted to not receive it since they also gave me the option of donating the gift card to this cause.

And I’ll be honest with y’all..there is a tiny chance of a perk…one of the Ambassadors will get an all-expense paid trip to the 2011 Foodbuzz Festival! (crosses fingers)

However, I would have definitely applied to be an Ambassador anyway. Like I said, I love that I can use my blog to raise awareness for a good cause.

How you can help.

You have the opportunity to show your support of this partnership by setting Yahoo! as your homepage by clicking on this link. Like what they’re doing? Let them know by changing your homepage! You can also tweet or Facebook about the Foodbuzz/Yahoo! Support Share our Strength program to bring awareness to the cause.

I’m pretty bummed that the original winner didn’t claim her prize. However, that gives y’all a second chance to win the $100 credit to Joss & Main.

::drumroll:

The winner is:

Holly (commenter #54), who said:

I love this site, I’m already a member. Today I like the Cube Chair in Canary Moss Style. Thanks for an awesome giveaway!

CONGRATS Holly! Please contact me at niftyfoodie@gmail.com within 48 hours to get your prize!

Thanks so much for the comments! I loved reading them, and I really appreciate your ideas on what you’d like to see on The Nifty Foodie in the future!

Ok, so you wanna know who won the Blogiversary giveaways?

Blogiversary Giveaway #1:
Jenn, who said “I would get an ice cream maker!”

Blogiversary Giveaway #2:
Lindsay Tjarks, who said “I’m guessing an apron!”

Blogiversary Giveaway #3:

Amanda, who said “I loved your tomato paste entry which I thought was so smart because I rarely need a whole can. So, I’d love more “nifty tips” and Louisiana dishes would be great as well.”

Congrats y’all!

If you won, please contact me at niftyfoodie@gmail.com to claim your prizes!

I hope everyone has had an awesome week!  I’ve had a blast reading your comments for giveaway #1 and giveaway #2 (both of which you can still enter). Giveaway #2, especially, because y’all are giving me handmade ideas for future giveaways.

This last giveaway is actually a request from a couple of you. Last year, I held a similar giveaway, because I know that some of y’all aren’t able to find some ingredients that I consider staples in our Louisiana kitchen. It was probably the most comments I’ve ever received from a giveaway, which to me, shows that y’all want some Louisiana staples in your kitchen, for sure! (Can’t say I don’t blame you!)

So, here it is folks. Quite a few of these are things we use in our home regularly. The crawfish boil makes for some AMAZING mashed potatoes (and of course, boiled seafood). Tony Chachere’s seasoning is like the salt & pepper in the house, especially for my husband, who loves things WAY spicier than I do. Community Coffee with Chicory is a CRAZY strong coffee. While we don’t make coffee in our house regularly, I do get this stuff at the local coffee shop. This is NOT your typical Starbucks-like coffee. Gumbo File is an ingredient that is a must-have for making gumbo. My friend in NYC said this stuff was no where to be found, so here it is..up for grabs. And of course, Zatarain’s Jambalaya, Gumbo and Pastalaya mixes for easy peasy weeknight dinners.

Here’s the deets:

All you have to do to enter is comment telling me, what would you like to see more of on The Nifty Foodie?

For an additional giveaway entry, post this on your Twitter and comment back with the Twitter link: “I just entered @niftyfoodie’s Blogiversary Giveaway: Louisiana Staples for the Kitchen. Enter here! http://bit.ly/eyaKt3“

You have until Monday, January, 24th at 11:59pm to comment.

Just a note: Only continental US readers can enter this giveaway.

FTC Disclosure: These prizes are provided by The Nifty Foodie.

Thanks so much for reading this blog for the past three years. I’ve had so much fun sharing my kitchen adventures with you, and best of luck with the giveaways!