Menu for Hope V

Guys, Menu for Hope is in full swing. It's a pretty fantastic fundraising drive where food bloggers all around the world band together to make the world a little brighter. The way it works is this: bloggers put up some awesome raffle prizes, then gracious readers like yourself donate money and by doing so enter the raffle for the prizes. Last year's Menu for Hope raised over $90,000 for the United Nations World Food Programme, and they hope to beat it this year.

The prizes are varied and fabulous, but include all manner of fancy chocolates, plenty of free dinner packages at very enticing restaurants (including, for you New Yorkers, dinner for 8 at Momofuku Ssäm Bar -- amazing, right?!), lots of cookbooks and books on food, a weirdly large number of bento-related prizes, a wine vacation in Napa, all sorts of hands-on food-related seminars, tours, and workshops, a Cuisinart ice cream maker, fancy olive oils, fancy cheeses, homemade sweets, care packages ranging from Ferry Building favorites to artisanal Italian ingredients. And even a set of lingerie cookie cutters!

The holiday season is upon us and now's the time for giving. I encourage you to check out Menu for Hope. The full selection of prizes, as well as instructions for donating (at the very bottom of the post), are here at the site of its founder, Pim, and the prizes for the west coast sector are listed here at MattBites. Go to it!