Weekend Cooking- How You Can Help

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Living in NYC,  the news has covered the devastation of Hurricane Sandy non-stop for two weeks. Watching all of the coverage of people who have lost everything, and the thousands of people still without power twelve days later, can be overwhelming. You can get a sense of powerlessness.

There have been many, many stories of people helping their neighbors and strangers. Since this is a book blog, I wanted to relate one interesting story. The New York Public Library was scheduled to hold its annual black tie fundraiser on November 5th. They had power problems and decided instead of just canceling, to donate the food which would feed 600 people, to provide a hot meal to Staten Islanders affected by the storm. Library employees volunteered to help with the meal.

If you are a bookish person and would like to help, First Book is an organization that is providing children affected by Hurricane Sandy with books. They did the same after Hurricane Katrina, and for every $2.50 donated will provide a child with one book. That money is matched by the American Federation of Teachers and The Albert Shanker Institute, so your donation of $2.50 actually provides for three books. This might be a good way for those with young children who get an allowance to help other children, or for your book club to get together and donate.

To tie in with our Weekend Cooking posts, there are some charities already on the ground feeding people. For my central New York friends, the Carmelo Anthony Foundation has teamed up with Feed the Children to bring two trucks of food to Brooklyn this week. Feed the Children has 31 trucks overall scheduled to help people in New York and New Jersey.

Feeding America has already provided local area food banks with 150 trucks filled with food and grocery supplies. They work with many corporations, including Major League Baseball and the Players Association, to provide people in need with food. So if you have a baseball fan in your family, maybe this is your charity of choice.

City Harvest here in New York rescues food from restaurants and grocery stores to provide food for those in need. I love the idea that they take what would be thrown out at the end of the night and bring it to people; if recycling is important to you, City Harvest is your charity.

All of the above mentioned charities have high rankings from Charity Navigator, which a has a page of organizations who are helping with relief efforts.

Many of you have probably already donated to your charity of choice, but if you are looking, I hope you found this helpful. There are still thousands of people without food, heat, and homes, and every little bit helps.

Links:
Charity Navigator
First Book
Feed The Children 
Feeding America
City Harvest