It's time again for Menu for Hope, a money-raising event conducted by foodbloggers the world over. I participated last year, and this year I have been planning all of the people I'm going to hit up for donations, and then I paused. This year's Menu for Hope will benefit a school in Africa who I am sure needs our help. But, what about the people locally who need our help? Since the primary goal of this website is to celebrate Central Ohio, I had this gut reaction that I should be working to help those in our community who need help. But this raised a few issues: with the global foodblogging community, they have no problem raising tens of thousands of dollars; indeed, this year they are shooting for 200K. I, of course, couldn't raise that much money, and I'm not sure if the raffle prize dealio would work for my readership. So, I did have a few thoughts: These are my first few thoughts, and I'm kind of coming at this a little late, but I just had this overwhelming feeling I should support a charitable organization closer to home. I know I have a lot of readers who work for charitable orgs or work for places who might be willing to donate space/food/etc if there is enought interest.
- Would anyone be interested in attending some sort of food related event? Sort of like the Columbus Underground happy hours, where we could talk and mingle and finally meet, enjoy some good food.
- And then either everyone could bring a toy or nonperishible foods and/or we could have a silent auction for donated goods from great local artists, stores, and food purveryors?
- Does anyone have any experience with this sort of event and be willing to volunteer their time to assist? The event would be totally mellow, just hanging out, meeting new friends, maybe talking food or whatever.
- Would anyone come? It would probably be on a Sunday between now and Christmas (unless we run out of time to plant).
- Would anyone come even if you had to pay for drinks? I might be able to wrangle some drink specials and/or some free food.
- Does anyone have a specific charity they would like to support? First thoughts for me were Columbus AIDS Task Force/Camp Sunrise or the MidOhio Food bank. If we did something like CATF, it wouldn't have to be before the Holidays.
On a completely different note, are any of you creative types out there willing to help me design a tee shirt? I have always thought of myself as a creative person, but I've been trying to come up with a tee shirt design for over a year and I haven't had a single viable idea. Ideally, the shirt would have my website, maybe a veggie or something, and something about keeping it local. No profanity, but something tastefully suggestive would be considered. Ideally also, the design would look good on green, like a similar green to my website. Or, a green design printed on white. The winning design will receive the satisfaction of a job well done, and I will also give you a gift certificate (or however it wrorks) for one free shirt from Skreened.com. (the link goes to a shirt I find particularly cute) Please email me your ideas in some sort of reasonalbe jpg format or other. It would also be cool if I could put the logo on a reusable shopping bag.
Any Thoughts or Ideas?
