ShopRite and the New York City Wine & Food Festival 2010

I haven't been M.I.A. on purpose, oh no - I realize my last post was cut short, but there really is a wonderful reason and I'm going to share it with you: ShopRite and the New York City Wine & Food Festival are responsible, in part, for my absence. No sooner had I decided to blog our food for a week then I realized I had so much to do before heading off to NYC for 2 days. I do have photos and I promise to share, but until then you need to hear about the fun time I had!

I have been chosen as one of a select group of bloggers to be a ShopRite Blogger Panelist. What does that mean for me? Well, I get to sample ShopRite products, develop recipes and share with my readers here and on the ShopRite blog. Having been a ShopRite shopper since my own mother bought our groceries there, I am more than equal to the task and really look forward to this.

The most important part about the NYCW&FF are the hosts and beneficiaries of this. While it may seem pricey to some, the festival benefits Share our Strength and the Food Bank for New York City, two organizations I am behind 110%!

ShopRite kicked off the Blogger Panel by sending us all off to the NYCW&FF 2010 where we saw the ShopRite brand in action, sampled until we glutted ourselves and were fortunate enough to meet food executives, fellow bloggers and even a celebrity or two (Fabio Viviani and Tyler Florence)!

Chef Fabio Viviani - Yes, I was taking covert photos of him, but not because I'm a stalker! I honestly wasn't sure it was him. I approached him after Chef Faith's presentation and told him how much our family loves him. He sent kisses to the kids and when I told him we stopped watching Top Chef after his season (our hearts were broken!) he reminded me to watch Season 8 as he will be back! Don't miss it!

We started at Pier 54 Hudson River Park, where we were able to sample wines from just about everywhere (which I passed on as a teetotaler) and food from the ShopRite stores. We also watched ShopRite's Executive Chef Faith Alahverdian cook up a feast of beef and share her infectious passion about food.

Chef Faith Alahverdian

The ShopRite Culinary Workshop Chefs doing their thing.

The food! This is just part of what all those wonderful chefs were cooking up at the tasting.

After that Val of From Val's Kitchen and I traipsed off to Chelsea Market as Val had never had the chance to see it and it's one of my favorite stomping grounds in NYC. Once we shuffled out of there (feet a little sore at this point) we sat with Bob Clare, one of the owners of the Oakland, NJ ShopRite and his friend Janice. We chatted for a bit before heading to Abe & Arthur's for Tyler Florence's signing of his newest book, Family Meal. How cool is that? Full review up & coming for this book, by the way.

We stayed at A & A for dinner (impeccable service and wonderful food - highly recommended) and had the best time laughing and eating together. After that I trucked back to my room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and Skyped with Marty and the kids for a little as they were all so excited about mommy going to NYC.

The ShopRite team, the gals from Coyne PR and the other bloggers were the highlight of the weekend, though and I look forward to getting to know them all better throughout the year. I came away with so many great products, food ideas and memories and I can't wait to blog about them all!

There are more photos of the Festival here: New York City Wine & Food Festival

ShopRite Bloggers in Caring and Expressions of Hunger

Back in August I wrote a blog post about hunger detailing the partnership between bloggers (Blog it Forward to Fight Hunger), ShopRite Partners in Caring and General Mills and their effort to shed light on hunger and bring about a way to help. The deal was that ShopRite and General Mills would donate a box of Honey Nut Cheerios to a local food bank for each comment we received (3,000 boxes!). As a way of thanking the bloggers that participated, Partners in Caring and General Mills created a mosaic for the back of the Honey Nut Cheerios box that uses the faces of the bloggers within the mosaic.

The front of the box.

The mosaic on the back.

Right in the center - one of the photos of me. It was a repeating pattern and my kids thought counting my picture was rather fun.

So, if you head to a ShopRite anytime soon, look for the Bloggers in Caring/Partners in Caring logo and check out the back of the box. There are many bloggers that participated and it's a fun way to be thanked for something that took very little effort or time.

I stated in August that I would match the Partners in Caring and General Mills gift and I did. Over the holiday season and more recently the Haiti crisis, I donated food and money for food to several different charities. One was LifeChurch in Allentown who runs an orphanage in Haiti, and another was Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley. I won't divulge what was given, but I did stay true to my word.

Right now through March 1, 2010 Partners in Caring is running a contest to find artwork that portrays the plight of the hungry or a solution to it:

Sharing emotions, thoughts and feelings through music, poetry, performance, art, and storytelling has long been a way of communicating and enlightening others about an issue.

ShopRite Partners In Caring is asking for your help in fulfilling its mission to increase the awareness of hunger in our community.

Please submit an original video that depicts how you perceive the plight of the hungry or what a solution to hunger might be in the "Expressions of Hunger" video contest.

Share your most creative, original expresssion about hunger. It may be a song, a poem, a dramatically read story or a performance that you capture on video.

If you head to Expressions of Hunger, you will find details on entering.

PRIZES:

Up to six winners will have their picture featured and their video summarized on a September, 2010 Cheerios® box*, sold exclusively at ShopRite, and the video will be featured on the ShopRite Partners in Caring Website ("SRPIC") (ARV:$400.00-based on a total of 15 winners pictured on Cheerios box)

Up to 10 additional winners will receive a video camera (ARV $200) and their entries will be featured on the ShopRite Partners In Caring website.

Bloggers in Caring Blog it Forward to Fight Hunger - Your Comments Will Help!

When was the last time you were hungry? Now, I'm not talking about an hour before dinner when your tummy is growling, I mean real hunger, when you are already famished and have no idea when or what your next meal will be. The name for that condition is called, 'food insecurity', and in my home state, Pennsylvania, it affects 10% of the population. That's an estimated 1.2 million people in Pennsylvania and 31 million across the United States.

Join me, along with ShopRite Partners in Caring and General Mills in the fight against hunger. Fighting hunger is nothing new to ShopRite, they've been doing it for more than 20 years through its support of the Feeding America network (formerly America’s Second Harvest) and through participation in the Checkout Hunger program.

For the last 10 years, the ShopRite Partners in Caring program has joined forces with more than 50 manufacturers to provide products marked with the ShopRite Partners in Caring shelf label. When these products are purchased at any one of the 217 ShopRite stores, a donation is made to a food bank local to that particular store.

Where do you come in? If you live in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Maryland, shopping at ShopRite stores and choosing products with the Partners in Caring label will help. If you don't live in one of the states mentioned, simply comment on this post and, for every comment made*, a box of General Mills cereal will be donated a local food bank; it doesn't get any easier than that!

For more information on all that ShopRite is doing in the fight against hunger, visit www.ShopRitePartnersInCaring.org


*Up to 30 comments

**Update: Although PIC will provide boxes of cereal to a local food bank up to 30 comments, I am committing to making a donation for EVERY SINGLE COMMENT AFTER 30 to a food bank of my choosing - so, BRING ON THE COMMENTS!