Links and Logos

The blog is: http://aprilfoodday.blogspot.com/

The feeding america site is: www.feedingamerica.org

The donation page is: https://secure2.convio.net/a2h/site/Donation2?idb=1375441249&df_id=1560&1560.donat ion=form1

Here's the logo:Here's one designed by Rosemary at Content in a Cottage. Thank you for helping.

APRIL FOOD DAY

Do you know that...

• One in eight Americans are at risk for hunger?
• Four million Americans receive assistance from Feeding America each week?
• Children who are hungry have slower emotional, social and educational development?
• Millions of elderly Americans go to bed hungry every night?

It is so critical that those of us who are not in this position help those who are. So many people who never thought they would need food assistance are now asking for help from their local food bank. They have lost their jobs through the massive down-sizings and layoffs. They have exhausted all of their resources. Elderly people on fixed incomes are finding that costs are out-pacing their incomes.

First-time requests at food banks are at an all-time high, but the shelves are bare. Corporations and foundations have decreased their donations and individuals are so uncertain about their own finances, that their giving has slowed.

We are asking that you make a donation, even if it's just a dollar or two. It will help someone who may be less fortunate than you are.

Here's the link to Feeding America, an affiliation of more than 200 food banks across the country. Chances are that your local food bank is a part of this network.

We're all in this together, and that's the way we will come through it... together.

Please help today. The need is great and the time is now.

Thank you so very much.

April Food Day on Huffington Post

Thanks so much to writer, Ari Herzog for writing a post about April Food Day on Huffington Post and on his personal blog today. This will be huge in getting the word out. Here are the links to the HuffPost and to Ari's blog.

Shizuoka Fair @ MEIDI-YA

Shizuoka Fair

The post I have long delayed is finally here! The fair featuring Shizuoka Prefecture (2nd February 2009 - 11th February 2009) held in MEIDI-YA had on-sale goods that Shizuoka is famous for; mainly green tea and wasabi (Japanese Horseradish). Besides the fair, also available was a Tea Seminar (seminar on how to prepare green tea drinks), Japanese Food Seminar using ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture (seminar teaching 4 different dishes), and a Maguro Cutting Show (a show on how they cut tuna). To make it even better, there was a 25% discount all fair items for the first three days.

Fresh wasabi ( tomato in background)

The variety of green tea sold ranged from about $4.90 - $60, depending on the quality of the tea. They had not only green tea bags, powder, but also limited edition Green Tea Ramune (green tea lemonade) and Wasabi Ramune (I didn't dare buy this). Imagine carbonated green tea in the famous ramune glass bottle! As for the wasabi, a huge range of salad dressings (miso-wasabi, wasabi Japanese mayonnaise) and fresh wasabi and paste (not very cheap) were available, including a unique wasabi flavoured soft-cream (ice-cream) that is well-known in Shizuoka. From the samples, the miso-wasabi salad dressings was absolutely beautiful. And I would definitely recommend trying the ice-cream if you ever come across it.

Green Tea Ramune and Wasabi Ramune (and other drinks)




Wasabi mayonnaise and salad dressings

The events held with the fair were really interesting and worth going. The Tea Seminar was really insightful as they taught how to make cold and hot green tea (using the products sold at the fair), and green tea-banana milkshake (awesome taste). They even had a special green tea layer cake made which tasted heavenly for those who love green tea. As for the Japanese Food Seminar, dishes taught were green tea dorayaki, Fujinomiya yakisoba, Shizuoka ochazuke (rice in green tea served with horse mackerel), tuna and wasabizuke sandwich (tuna mixed with wasabi spread on bread), and fried hanpen (fish cake). The Maguro Cutting Show was one of the more unique and unforgettable images I have seen. The tuna they brought in from Japan apparent cost a bomb, and it was HUGE.

Tea and Japanese Food Seminar

All in all, I do not in the slightest bit regret having visited the fair (roughly 4 days of it), or the goods I bought. It was a wonderful experience, and my friends and I from my club in school (Temasek Polytechnic Japanese Cultural Group; TPJCG) even made friends with the promoter (Japanese from Shizuoka) and got to brush up our Japanese because we had to speak to him in Japanese! Pictures please!

Green tea and banana milkshake!

Green tea dorayaki

Maguro (tuna) Cutting Show! Huge tuna!

April Food Day is Coming

If you'd like an April Food Day logo to post on your blog for our Bloggers Action Day, please e-mail me at mfairfaxf at juno dot com, and I will be happy to send you a high resolution jpg version of it. Additionally, e-mail me for the links to Feeding America's Donation page.

We're asking everyone to tell their readers to put April Food Day in the comment section if they make a donation to Feeding America, so they will be able to track donations and see what a difference we've made. Thanks for being a part of April Food Day!

Salon.com Article on Hunger

I hope that you will take a few minutes to read this recent article in Salon.com. It outlines the incredible surge in need at food banks across the country in the past six months. Here's the link.

Some Statistics

In December 2008, Food Stamp participation was 31,784,453 people, the highest participation level on record, and an increase of nearly 700,000 individuals from November 2008. Previously, SNAP/Food Stamp participation peaked in September 2008, when some of the 31,586,923 participants were hurricane victims getting a temporary benefit.

All states reported increases in caseloads between December 2007 and December 2008. Ten states registered over-the-prior December percentage caseload increases above 20 percent: Idaho (30.4), Utah (29.8), Florida (28.7), Nevada (28.1), Arizona (24.3), Texas (24.1), Wisconsin (22.8), Maryland (22.0), Georgia (21.2), and Massachusetts (20.2).

A weakened economy means that many more individuals are turning to SNAP/Food Stamps. Even before the latest economic crisis, more than 36.2 million people lived in U.S. households facing a constant struggle against hunger.

A food stamp recipient receives only 78 cents per meal, on average.

Introducing April Food Day

Everyday, the news is filled with the dire news about the current economic climate and a lot of us use the blogging community to take a break from the constant drumbeat. However, we can not ignore the fact that friends and family members, and even some blogger friends have lost their jobs because of the recession.

Former advertising executive and editor of Easy & Elegant Life, along with fundraising professional and editor of Pigtown*Design, have teamed up to create a blogger action day on April 1, 2009, which we are calling April Food Day – Bloggers Fighting Hunger. We are asking our fellow bloggers to create a post about this project and ask each of their readers to make a contribution to Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), a national food bank with 200 member banks across the country.

People who never had a worry in the world now have to think about where their next meal is coming from. People who never would have dreamt that they would need help are now showing up at the local food banks. But when they get there, the shelves are bare. There is not enough food being donated to meet the sudden rise in demand. There is not enough money to buy the food for the food banks. There is not a general understanding that food banks need help to help fill their shelves.

Every dollar contributed provides seven meals or 10 pounds of food. A gift of $25 provides 75 meals. If we all post together and ask our readers to make a contribution on April 1, we can make a huge difference in our communities.

We would like you to help in a few easy ways:

• Send this or a similar letter to your friends with blogs and ask them to do the same.
• Write a post, and we can help you with copy if you need it, and publish it on March 31 or April 1, asking your readers to make a contribution to Feeding America. We will provide you with the direct link to Feeding America’s donation page.
• Provide a link to this blog, April Food Day and we will link back to your blog and to your post about the April Food Day.

We hope that you will help us help others. We know that this is a quick turn-around, but the need is great and the time is now.

Calabash Brothers

While waiting to get coffee from the Mud truck today, I remembered that I used to watch this when I was a kid in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash_Brothers