Menu for Hope III

What if $10 could get you a three-hour chocolate tour throughout Paris with pastry chef extraordinaire, David Lebovitz? Or dinner with New York Times food critic Eric Asimov? Or a fancy schmancy lunch delivered to your office by The Amateur Gourmet? And even better, what if that same $10 could help someone less fortunate have a much needed meal? Let me explain.

Three years ago, Pim started a fundraising campaign called Menu for Hope with fellow food bloggers. Last year, they raised $17,000 to help UNICEF. This year, they’re raising money to support the UN Food World Programme which provides hunger relief for needy people worldwide.

For every $10 you donate, you may claim one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. The campaign is running until Friday, December 22 and the winners will be announced January 15 on Chez Pim.

The list of prizes is impressive and one that I mentioned above has me crossing my fingers very tightly. Others include a dinner for four with wines at Iggy’s in Singapore, coffee with Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame, homemade macaroons from Orangette and much, much more. You can find the full list of prizes here.

Since I’m still a fairly new food blogger, I only heard about the fundraiser a few days ago. I had an edible prize that I wanted to add to the list but, unfortunately, I missed the deadline. Oh well, there's always next year!

Here's how to donate:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from the Menu for Hope.
2. Go to the donation site 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 for EU02. (Please use the double-digits, not EU1, but EU01.).
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so your corporate match can be claimed.
5. Make sure you allow your email address to be seen so you can be contacted if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone. (If you happen to forget to do that like I did, you can also go back to the site and type in your email address in the personal message space).

So stop what you're doing, start spreading the word and don't forget to donate! Just don't bid on David Lebovitz's Paris pastry tour or I might have to wrestle you for it.