Here’s to feeding more people, both at home and afar

Sometime before Christmas I received an email from HungerFree, a division of World Vision: would I be interested in coming on board for their Quarterly project?

I had heard about this nifty new subscription box that raises funds for hunger relief efforts in Kenya. My friend Dennis is a HungerFree ambassador and he kicked things off last fall with the first ever HF Quarterly. Apparently, he also handed over my name to the HF team.

The request from the HungerFree head office came long before my resolve to do small things with great love — and before I really knew how much I would need a special love project in early 2017.

A chance to merge my passions with the HungerFree community and their desire for a hunger free world? Absolutely, I said. Just tell me what you need.

After many emails and a conference call here and there, I abruptly adjusted my New Year’s Eve ‘board game café’ party plans and began brainstorming for a pre-party: a casual dinner for twelve adults and a small pack of kids and babies. I didn’t have another free evening to schedule in another dinner/photo shoot before the deadline I was given; it would have to be New Year’s Eve.

I enlisted my friend Tim to come on board as a photographer and gave my friends a head’s up that the event would be photographed for the HF Quarterly Mini-Mag that is included in every box. As usual, my friends lent their full support. You saw some of the images from that evening in this post; it was a memorable dinner and wrap up to 2016, for all the right reasons.

Images by Tim Chin

Somehow I made all the deadlines. I created a handful of original recipes for the box, photographed them in the soft January light, and poured my heart into a story for the magazine. I hope you love our Quarterly package as much as I do. It’s been such a privilege to be part of this incredibly creative and brilliant project.

The theme for the HungerFree Quarterly Vol. 2 is ‘Celebrate’, and the box combines the joy of food and the joy of gathering through handmade products from Kenya, inspiring stories and recipes (mine!) worth celebrating with your friends and loved ones. Oh and just between us, the recipe for Butter Pecan Shortbread is worth the price of the box alone and you won’t find it anywhere else.

Each box directly empowers young people in Kilifi, Kenya through an innovative, new project by World Vision and the UN’s World Food Programme. It’s pretty cool.

Head to the HungerFree Quarterly site to see more of what comes in Vol. 2 and then please consider supporting us with your order. Thank you.

I’ve been writing a bit here and there since Vol. 2 of the Quarterly became available for pre-prder. For example, I wrote about feeding the world from my table over on the Hungerfree blog.

From the post:

“Nowadays, as much as I love blogging and cookbook writing, my talents still seem limited, especially when it comes to impacting people on a global scale. One woman, based out of a Canadian kitchen, with a small vegetable garden and a half a dozen hens out back is not exactly a world changing platform. The challenge of overcoming world hunger can seem impossible, but words can be powerful; words can move people to help others. I have a voice through my blog, and I intend to use it for good.”

Read the rest here >> Feeding the World from My Table || Hungerfree

Everyday celebrations. Hunger relief. Kenyan communities. These words give me tingles every single day. Was this the blog content I had planned for February? Not it the least. But it feels like a step in the right direction and I hope you stick around to see how it all unfolds.

What’s next? My resolve to celebrate the everyday more often and to continue to open my home to both friends and strangers. Last weekend we had a successful soup swap, Sunday dinner is ongoing, and two birthday parties are in the plans. A Facebook-organized pot-luck with the theme “Food Unites Us All” is underway, and I will welcome a small group of local ladies to my table, most of whom I have never met.

Food is love. Here’s to feeding more people, both at home and afar.

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9 Comments

  1. What a beautiful post. Full of love and kindness and gratitude. You are the embodiment of what the world needs now; people that will spread life and hope and be the change. I am so happy that you have found your passion and calling. I look forward to each new project and to supporting you in any way I can.

  2. What a great idea.
    I feel this would also make a great gift for someone – perhaps a spring birthday.
    Thanks for sharing this info.

    1. Nicole, absolutely! I am sending a box to my mother for Mother’s Day. And I sent her Box 1 for Christmas. She loved it. It’s kind of the gift to get someone who has everything. It’s unique, and is really the gift that keeps on giving. 🙂

  3. This resonates as something authentic for you. You always have been about feeding others and what a great opportunity to participate in something bigger. Thanks for being such a great example of thinking beyond ourselves.