The Nifty Foodie

In a little less than a month, my hometown (well, not exactly hometown, since I live in a suburb outside) of New Orleans will be hosting several amazing food bloggers for IFBC.

Originally, when I heard the announcement of IFBC being hosted in NOLA, I was very excited about going. I was definitely going…definitely.

But then the price tag hit me. $350. It was a little steep for me, and since we’re currently saving to get a bigger house in the near future, I just could not justify the expense on my hobby, as much as I wanted to go.

Then, IFBC tweeted today that they are graciously gifting 3 bloggers with free registration. To enter, all I have to do is write about why I want to attend. Where do I start?

I’ve been food blogging for over 3 years, and have never had the opportunity to go to a food conference. Usually, they fall on weekends that just run into family events/birthdays. As lame as that can sound, I’m a huge family person. I just don’t skip family things, if I can help it. August 26-28th is free in my calendar. No birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, graduations, etc.

While food blogging is strictly a hobby for me, I’d love to hear from inspiring, successful speakers to learn how to take my blogging to the next level. Some of the sessions I’ve especially got my eye on are food photography (Hello, have you seen my inconsistent photos? I sometimes think I have no clue what I’m doing with my DSLR!), recipe writing and development (I’d love to dabble in this on my blog and share more original recipes.), time management (Yeah, I have no idea where my time goes), and eating on a budget (Our grocery bills are way too high lately!).

IFBC this year is in my hometown. New Orleans is about an hour away from where I currently reside, Baton Rouge. Doesn’t everyone love a local?

Shameless cute picture. Millie can play with Dixie all weekend. Millie is my dog. Dixie is my family’s dog. They are sort of besties, and would love to spend a weekend together.

The food. SO many wonderful restaurants will be feeding the attendees at the conference, including one of my favorite bakeries: Sucre. Aren’t those macarons just gorgeous?

Image source (this is the link to the blogger who took this picture, since I never take pictures of myself) — Me (right) and Big Apple Nosh

Actually putting names to faces in the food blogger community. I’ve seen the blog roll of the attendees, and I would be absolutely stoked to meet everyone. I met a bunch of fellow wedding bloggers from Weddingbee this April, and had an absolute blast. It’s so fun to meet Internet friends.

Whew…that was a lot to share!

As you can see, I have many reasons to attend this conference. Thanks so much for sticking around and reading this post, by the way. Please cross your fingers and toes for me to get chosen to attend!

It’s so great to read about how much Yahoo!’s $20,000 commitment to Share our Strength has been buzzing around in the social media world amongst other food bloggers! I’m just in awe of all the awareness that has been brought forward, because of this great contribution to help our youth.

I’ve learned so much about the astounding numbers involving child hunger while being an ambassador for Foodbuzz. I really had no idea that 1 in 4 children are hungry in this country. Numbers like that make you really truly count your blessings and realize that there are a lot of children who need our help!

There are so many ways that we can help, too. From donating money to contributing our talents and time (hint hint to the bakers out there…Great American Bake Sale), every little bit helps. If you can’t even do that, take a small step now by showing your support of Yahoo!’s commitment to Share our Strength by making Yahoo! your homepage now. (click on the button in my sidebar or click here) and/or share the campaign with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

I can’t wait to see the impact that Share our Strength has on our youth in the near future, and I appreciate everyone who has read about this wonderful cause. I know it’s not the norm on here to post about something other than recipes, but I’m really glad that I was able to write about this organization on here.

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!