Epicurious Announces Anti-Hunger Initiative:WineDineDonate

I’ve just learned about a new initiative launched by Epicurious.com to address the issues of childhood hunger. It’s stunning to learn that our own U.S.D.A. estimates that in the U.S., 14 million children live in households that are “food insecure.” We hear so much about childhood obesity these days, it would be easy to overlook the face of hunger in the U.S. Perhaps it's because obesity and related public health issues are easier to face. It is only somewhat disturbing to watch news about issues of plenty, problems of “too much.” It is much more sobering to face the reality of scarcity, the issues of “not enough;” particularly when we're talking about our most vulnerable citizens.

I’ll admit that I find it easier to ignore the public health issues associated with obesity. I find it much more difficult to reconcile the value I place on personal responsibility with the hard facts surrounding hunger in the U.S. It's hard to accept that millions of fellow citizens are going hungry when I’m stuffing myself with good food and ranting about people taking away my "right" to foie gras.

Happily, I have just been given an opportunity to turn my discomfort into action. Please join me in supporting this fantastic project addressing hunger relief. Tanya Wenman Steele, Editor, CondeNet staff, and top chefs like Michael Mina and Michael Schlow, are working together with America's Second Harvest to feed our hungriest children.

There are three basic ways to support the anti-hunger initiative called WineDineDonate:

1. Host a fund-raising dinner party for a few friends and share the opportunity to support hunger relief. The WineDineDonate project will provide menus by top chefs, invites, even placecards.
2. Attend a WineDineDonate dinner at restaurants like Michael Mina in San Francisco and Via Matta in Boston. Half of all proceeds go to America's Second Harvest.
3. Make a donation.

The Boston dinner will take place at Via Matta on October 3, 2006.

Click on the links below to learn more, download menus, make donations, or buy tickets to events.

Epi-log, Ms. Steel's blog on Epicurious.com introduces the project, click here to read the Announcement and learn more.

Visit the WineDineDonate project website.

In the Boston area, another hunger relief organization is Project Bread.