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!

Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale

I'm getting the word out for Share Our Strength today in the hopes that my small space on the web would help to feed even one child. I've had the privilege to test recipes here at home for a Share Our Strength cookbook and hope to be able to host my own bake sale some time in the near future.

Today, more than 12 million children in the United States do not know when their next meal will come. Unfortunately, this number continues to rise as these difficult economic times are leaving more and more people jobless, without homes, and unable to provide food for their families.

What can you do?

1. Sign-up to host a bake sale: http://www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/vgabs

2. Buy the virtual Great American Bake Sale eBook:
http://StolenMomentsCooking.com/virtual-gabs

3. Post a ChipIn widget or banner on your blog:
http://www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/bloggers

Make a difference in a child’s life by signing up and purchasing a virtual cookbook today! 100% of the proceeds from this eBook will benefit Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, which is a national effort that encourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to help end childhood hunger. Funds raised support summer and after-school feeding programs in your community that thousands of kids depend on.

Once you have purchased your virtual Great American Bake Sale cookbook, double your impact and use the recipes to host your own Great American Bake Sale! Hosting a Bake Sale is a fun and easy way to make a big impact!

To register your Bake Sale or for more information, please visit
http://GreatAmericanBakeSale.org

Share Our Strength - Operation No Kid Hungry

Share Our Strength has launched a brand new campaign to raise funds to help end childhood hunger. "Operation No Kid Hungry" responds to President-elect Obama's call to action to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Share Our Strength has partnered with AT&T to offer two great ways that you can support and participate in "Operation No Kid Hungry":

1. Donate by text: Text "SHARE" to 20222 on your mobile device to donate $5. AT&T will match all text donations up to $100,000. Help us meet this challenge grant! Find out more at http://strength.org/get_involved/text_donation/

2. Hold a food drive: Beginning January 19th, a national day of community service, help feed those in need by holding your own community food drive. Visit http://Strength.org to find a food bank and a list of the most needed nutritious foods.

For more information about "Operation No Kid Hungry" and how you can help end childhood hunger, visit Share Our Strength's website: http://strength.org.

Win Ferrero Chocolates and Help Fight Hunger

Ferrero Chocolates and Share Our Strength, a leading hunger-relief organization have teamed up for the second year in a row with Share Something Sweet to help fight hunger.

So far this year Ferrero has donated $150,000 to Share our Strength and is offering the chance to the rest of us to add to it. Simply log on to Share Something Sweet and send a customizable e-card to friends or family and Ferrero will donate $1 per e-card sent, up to $10,000. You can alos log-in to Facebook and for each person that joins the Ferrero Facebook page, "Ferrero Lovers Unite", Ferrero will donate yet another $1 to Share our Strength (up to $1,000).

Click on the links above to help get Ferrero up to their goal!

Here's the truly sweet part, for each person who clicks out of this page to any one of the links above (yes, I can check that you have done so) AND leaves a comment, he or she will be in the running for one of two Ferrero Chocolate Christmas Tree gift boxes! Sweet.

PLEASE leave your email so I can contact you if you are the winner. Contest ends at 12:00 AM January 1st, 2009!