This past weekend, I met a woman who helped create an orphanage in Uganda last year. Seventy two total orphans, those who have no suitable mother or father, now live in a place with clean water. Seventy two beds are filled every night, seventy two bodies go off to school in the morning, and seventy two patients receive care from a nurse whenever they need it. Much of this is to the credit of a [...]

Do you know about Share our Strength? It’s an organization dedicated to feeding the hungry in America. They raise funds through donations and programs like the Great American Bake Sale and Taste of the Nation. Then, Share Our Strength distributes financial and programming support to organizations throughout the country that are addressing local hunger needs with nutritious food. Yahoo! has committed $20,000 to end hunger in America on behalf of the Foodbuzz community of publishers [...]

The folks at One2One Network turned me on to a very cool site appropriate for the holiday season of giving: GiveBack.org.  The simple premise of this website is to make charitable giving easier. First, GiveBack users can create their own foundation from a huge variety of nonprofit organizations. The foundation I created benefits the Columbus Museum of Art, Slow Food International, Local Matters, Columbus Metropolitan Library and Capital Area Humane Society.  Register and $5 is [...]

I am writing for the newly formed Technorati Women’s Channel. I will publish articles there about parenting, mothering, and non-food news. You can find all my technorati articles through my profile. This article is too important not to share both places. Article first published as Blackboards and Benches to Help Haiti on Technorati. The earth-quake ravaged country of Haiti never seems to leave the news. Starting in early November, pictures and accounts of the cholera [...]

At the beginning of the growing season, we committed to share 10% of our backyard garden harvest through the Garden Challenge.  This hasn’t been easy because much of our harvest has been light so far.  We also don’t want to share delicate items that might go bad at the food pantry. Today, though, we had plenty to give.  We picked four peppers, a bagful of kale and two squash and went over to the Clintonville [...]

Do you grow your own food?  How about sharing some with those who can’t?  This isn’t a new idea, but a group of gardeners is hosting a Garden Challenge this season on The Barnyard. We are still finalizing plans for this upcoming year.  We know what grew well last season and we will add enough plantings to give 10% of the harvest away. Ours will go to the local settlement house, the Clintonville Beechwold Community [...]