In the lead up to the holiday giving season, one of the world’s most popular food bloggers has today launched an on-line raffle of unique food items in aid of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The auction aims to encourage food aficionados across the globe to play a part in helping the world’s poorest and hungriest people.
Pim Techamuanvivit, whom a British national newspaper called the “queen of food bloggers”, launched her “Menu for Hope” campaign two years ago from her base in San Francisco, California. As the creator and author of the internationally acclaimed food blog Chez Pim -- http://chezpim.typepad.com -- she chose WFP as this year’s beneficiary of funds to be generated in a raffle offering a wide range of culinary and gastronomic items.
“What better cause for food bloggers than to feed the world’s hungry,” says Techamuanvivit. “For us, food is a joy. On our blogs, we celebrate food as a delight or even an indulgence. Yet, many others who share our world do not have that privilege. For them, food is a matter of survival. This "Menu for Hope" is our small way to help.”
The raffle includes an eclectic range of enticing items donated by food bloggers around the world. Among the prizes on offer is an invitation to have coffee with the famous chef, Thomas Keller, whose California restaurant, The French Laundry, has established an international reputation for fine wine and good food.
Also on offer is an opportunity to win a table for two at the famous Tetsuya's restaurant in Sydney, Australia, plus a dazzling variety of local food specialities from around the world, and rare recipe books describing unusual ways to cook the ingredients.
“This raffle is yet another innovative way of engaging a wider audience,” said Neil Gallagher WFP Director of Communications. “The western media today are preoccupied with obesity and dieting. They have lost track of the cruel fact that in poor countries, hunger and malnutrition still claim more lives than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Most who die are young children.”
Anybody can take part in the “Menu for Hope” raffle by logging on to Pim Techamuanvivit’s blog – http://chezpim.typepad.com. The blog carries simple instructions about how to purchase individual tickets to the value of US $10.00. The more tickets you buy, the greater your chance of winning your favoured prize.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
