Volunteering at the San Francisco Food Bank

Food Bloggers are a Funny Looking Bunch, aren't they?..

packing frozen corn

Look at this picture. It was taken at Michael Minna late last Summer. Way, way in the background somewhere is a little speck that is me. To my right there is a glimpse of Amy who is seated next to NS. We were three lucky local bloggers who were guests that evening, of Tanya Wenman Steel, editor at epicurious.com.

The dinner was part of wine.dine.donate, raising money for America's Second Harvest and the Nation's Foodbank Network. As some of my regular readers know, I feel quite uncomfortable accepting freebies, but I agreed to attend because I hoped that by doing so I would have the chance to raise awareness for this worthwhile campaign.

apples ready to box

My initial idea was to try and mobilise Food Bloggers nationwide to take part in the Home Feast part of the programme, where readers of Epicurious are encouraged to host dinner parties and then ask their dinner guests for a donation for America's Second Harvest.

I am still thinking about perhaps trying to do this in the future, but Amy came up with a much better idea about how we could help in the meantime, by suggesting we get a group of local foodbloggers together to actually volunteer at the San Francisco Foodbank which is part of the Second Harvest Network.

on to the oranges

A date was made and dozens of food bloggers agreed to show up and help out. And so it was that last Saturday a huge turn out of food blogging friends, old and new, were sorting and boxing apples, oranges and frozen corn to later be distributed to local people in need of food. Everyone who took part agreed it was not only enormous fun, but that it felt good to be able to do something both food-related and worthwhile for the community too.

How about you? Find out how you, too, can volunteer in San Francisco, throw a dinner party to raise funds or donate to and advocate America's Second Harvest. Otherwise contact the Foodbank in your own area and ask them if there are ways you could volunteer your time to help in your own locality. You could even do what we did here in the Bay Area and get a bunch of nearby foodbloggers together to help you. It's a great way to meet likeminded people!

Volunteers are essential to the Foodbank's mission, with more than 7,000 people contributing 64,000 hours to ending hunger in San Francisco. This support will enable the Foodbank to distribute 26 million pounds of food this year, enough for more than 55,000 nutritious meals a day. To learn how you can volunteer click here.

After the event we hosted a reception for the foodbloggers at a wine bar just a few blocks from the Food Bank that you may have heard me mention in passing before, Yield. Many thanks to them for opening early to accommodate us. Huge thanks also go to The Fatted Calf, Poco Dolce and McQuade Celtic Chutneys for so kindly providing us with delicious nibbles. Additional thanks to food blogger Ore who brought along some Fra'mani samples for us to try too. I am planning to write more about our generous sponsors and the fabulous reception, where I had the chance to realise one of my lifelong ambitions ~ bartending ~ later this week.



PS. Many thanks to all the food blogging volunteers and friends:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27
As I didn't have a copy of the sign-up list I am sure to have missed someone out. Please leave a comment if you were at the event but I missed out a link to you here. Thanks again, everyone!

Local Resources
San Francisco Food Bank

Other Resources & Further Reading
Epicurious | Tanya's blog 'Epi-Log'
Homepage | America's Second Harvest

Archives
2006 | Albion Cooks
2005 | Tomoe, San Rafael

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Volunteering at the San Francisco Food Bank