Support Counter Culture!

Lifting Voices, a local nonprofit, is working with a roster of chefs, including Jose Andres, Robert Egger and Spike Mendelsohn to put together Counter Culture, a coffee-table book on 10 of their under-served kids' food histories in words and pictures.

In order to publish the book, Lifting Voices needs to raise $5,000 by April 29 and you can watch a video on the project and send your tax-deductible contribution through Kickstarter. If you donate $25 you get a free burger at Good Stuff Eatery, and $50 gets you a copy of the book. This is a kitchen-table project that also serves a great cause.

Updates, Updates

We got some fun (and gin-soaked) posts coming up but in the meantime, we are very excited about Food and Friend's Slice of Life.

This year, we are joining Dining in DC's Food Blogger team. Since she did such a great job explaining the pie selling and the pie buying, here's a link to her post. Food and Friends is a fantastic local charity and Thanksgiving is the pie holiday par excellence!

If you are making Dia de los Muertos plans (or just want another excuse to eat and help), Centro de los Derechos del Migrante is putting together it's 5th Anniversary shinding, complete with a party at the Cultural Institute of Mexico on October 27th. For more info, click here.

UNICEF's Tap Project - March 21

We are delighted to see that the Tap Project is back for World Water Week.

From March 21 through March 27, thousands of restaurants across the country will participate in this fantastic project from the US Fund for the United Nations Children's Fund. For one week, patrons will be asked to donate $1 for tap water when they dine out. The proceeds benefit UNICEF water and sanitation programs in Haiti, Central African Republic, Guatemala, Togo, and Vietnam. Every day, 4,100 children die of water-related diseases. Nearly 900 million people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, and almost half of them are children. Each $1 raised through the Tap Project can provide a child with safe water for 40 days.

For more information, please visit the Tap Project's website. For the complete list of restaurants in DC, please click here.

Let them eat pie

Food & Friends is having its third annual Slice of Life Pie Sale - the target is to sell 6,000 pies to provide 3,500 Thanksgiving meals for children and adults facing HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-changing illnesses.

To kick off the event, celebrity pie servers will be giving out free pieces of pie from 11.30 AM to 1.30 PM in front of the JW Marriott (1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) and in front of the Marriott at Metro Center (755 12th Street NW) next Tuesday, October 20. You can purchase whole Thanksgiving pies for yourself or a Food & Friends client.

Featured pies include Picture Perfect Pumpkin, Oh So Sweet Potato, and Harvest Apple Crumb Pie for $25, and Southern Pecan Pie and Creamy Chocolate Cheesecake for $35.

The pie sale lasts until Thursday, November 19th at 5 p.m. and the pies are available for pick up on Tuesday, November 24, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. at Food & Friends or one of 14 CVS locations in DC, Maryland or Virginia. For more information, please click here.

How does your Garden Grow?

Fans of all things local that we are, apartment dwelling has not allowed us to go one step further and plant our own produce. For those of you who do garden, or partake in the bounty of your friends with green thumbs, the Capital Area Food Bank has put together this great program:

Grow A Row is a way for gardeners to grow and donate produce to local community organizations that serve people in need. Fresh produce is an essential component of a healthy diet, but is not frequently donated to soup kitchens or food pantries due to its perishable nature. Grow A Row is an excellent opportunity to bridge community, build relationships, and provide people of low income with access to fresh, local produce.

All contributions are welcome - be it growing an extra row, digging up your entire yard, or organizing a collective donation from your community garden. The Capital Area Food Bank works with a network of over 700 charitable organizations in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, including food pantries, soup kitchens, youth programs, and emergency shelters.

For more information or to participate, contact Anika Roth or Jody Tick at growarow@cfoodbank.org /(202) 526-5344 at the at the Harvest for Health Deparment.

www.capitalareafoodbank.org

Brainfood Grill-Off 2009

DC-based nonprofit Brainfood uses food and cooking as tools to teach life skills and healthy living to teenagers in a safe and positive environment. For their annual Grill-Off, top chefs (including Central's Cedric Maupillier) team up with amateur cooks, including amateur aficionados and Brainfood program graduates to compete for top honors in a grilling competition.

The event will also include hors d’oeuvres, open bar and live auction. 100 percent of ticket sales ($75 per ticket and $3,000 per team entry) will support Brainfood after-school and summer programs, including hands-on instruction, educational field trips and guest chef demonstrations.

The Grill-Off will take place on Thursday, June 11, 2009 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Decatur House on Lafayette Square (1610 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20006). For more information, please click here.

No kid hungry

1 out of 6 children in the United States do not know when their next meal will come - that's 12 million kids going hungry every day. Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale is a national effort that encourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to help end childhood hunger, with funds going back to the community that raised them.

Buy a cookbook, buy baked goods or host a bake sale of your own. For more information, click here.

(Any takers for WDC? Send us an e-mail!)

SAWIP Wine Sip!

On Thursday, May 14th, the South African Embassy will be hosting a Wine Tasting Event in support of South Africa - Washington Internship Program, a leadership program for university students. SAWIP seeks to empower and develop a new generation of leaders committed to building upon South Africa’s progress and growing a stronger and robust civic society.

The event will start at 6.30 PM at the Former South Africa Official Residence (3101 Massachusetts Avenue, NW) and feature South African cuisine and wine, with selections from KWV Cathedral Cellar, Nederburg, Neethlingshof, Savanha and Spier.

The cost is $100 for guests, or $1,000 for the benefactor level. For more information, please click here.

World Water Week, March 22 - 28

Lack of clean drinking water is the biggest killer of kids under 5. To help address this situation, UNICEF has launched an initiative called the Tap Project. Every year, the Tap Project hosts World Water Week. During World Water Week, which is March 22-28, 2009, restaurants in DC and across the United States will encourage patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free. Every dollar raised provides a child with clean drinking water for 40 days.

To learn more about the project, which of your favorite restaurants are participating, and other ways to get involved, please click here.

Dining Out for Life

Food and Friends is a Washington, DC, based nonprofit organization that provides home-delivered, specialized meals and clinical nutrition to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.

145 restaurants in the DC Metro Area are participating in "Dining Out for Life" event this Thursday, with a kick off event in the CommonWealth Gastropub in Columbia Heights from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. 25 to 100% of the profits of these meals will go to Food and Friends.

Pick a place, have a wonderful meal and support a great cause. For the full list of participating restaurants, click here.

Turn up the heat!

The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance will be having its annual benefit at the Ritz-Carlton, West End next Tuesday, February 3rd. This celebration of women chef's will feature Chef Sara Moulton.

For more information and to register, please go here here.