Menu for Hope IV: Two more days to buy a raffle ticket!

As Menu for Hope 4 draws to a close, organizer Chez Pim believes the food-blogger fundraiser will likely raise more than last year's $62,000 total. For those who haven't yet purchased raffle tickets for any of the incredible variety of tempting and sometimes unique prizes, here is an article on how the funds raised will be used to support the Lesotho School Lunch Program, which buys foods produced by Lesotho farmers to feed Lesotho school children. A win for the farmers, a win for the schoolkids, and a win for you when your charitable donations go to supporting local eating halfway around the globe.

For those new to reading this blog, Cincinnati Locavore is donating an All-Clad MC2 Saute Pot w/Lid and Loop. You can read about the other raffle prizes here. If you're interested in food, you'll find dozens of prizes to make your mouth water both literally and figuratively. How about a private wine class for you and twenty of your closest friends? A package of Jeni's Ice Cream, the Columbus ice cream named by Dean & DeLuca 'the best ice cream in the US'? Would winning a guided pizza tour of New York City be a good enough reason to plan a trip to the big apple? Or maybe a two-day vacation in Napa at the Meadowood Resort is more your style.

Whatever foodie items you're interested in, take a look at the prizes and see if you can't find one you'd love to win. You'll be donating to a worthy cause while you're at it.

Menu for Hope 4: Cincinnati Locavore's prize is an All-Clad 6 QT MC2 Saute Pot with Lid and Loop!

When Chez Pim asked for participants in their annual world hunger fundraiser Menu for Hope by donating a prize to be raffled, I said I'd love to. Then I wondered what I could donate.

The beauty of this pot is that it is so versatile. It is broad-bottomed enough to use as a saute pan and deep enough to use as a stockpot or casserole/dutch oven. It can go from stovetop to oven and back. The handle and loop mean that even a heavy load can be carried easily two-handed. Like every All-Clad product, it heats up like a charm and holds heat evenly. The brushed-finish exterior is a joy -- unlike polished stainless, a fingerprint doesn't show. I LOVE these pots! This is a brand-new, never-used pot in its original box (I only removed it from the box to photograph it, then I rewrapped it in its protective plastic and stored it away again.) If you have room for only one large pot in your kitchen, this is the one! It retails for $245. Sorry, the bulk and size of this item mean I'm offering shipping within the US only.

To see all the prizes offered by food bloggers worldwide to raise money as part of Menu for Hope, go to Chez Pim. If you'd like to see what's being offered by other food bloggers in our general region (all of the non-coastal US), go to Kalyn's Kitchen.

To buy a raffle ticket for this or other prizes:

1. Go to online charity auction house Firstgiving.

2. Make a donation. For each $10 donation, you'll receive one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. The prize code for my All-Clad Saute Pot is UC07.

3. If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so Menu of Hope can claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

5. Check back at Chez Pim on for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!

Menu for Hope 4

Cincinnati Locavore is participating in the 4th Annual Menu for Hope! This annual online raffle by food bloggers around the globe raises money for hunger projects worldwide. In 2006 the project raised over $60,000 for the World Food Program. This year the project runs December 10 - 21. Bloggers all over the world donate food-related prizes, and blog readers participate by buying raffle tickets for the various prizes through online charity auction house Firstgiving.

Here at Cincinnati Locavore we're especially excited that funds raised this year by Menu for Hope IV are earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa. The Lesotho School Lunch Program is a model in local procurement, buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP through the Lesotho program buys directly from local subsistence farmers who practice conservation farming methods.

Other bloggers in our region participating in the project (along with the prizes they're offering this year) can be seen Monday, December 10th at the Central US Prize Roundup on Kalyn's Kitchen, the Utah-based host for flyover country blogs. For all prizes in all regions, visit Chez Pim. You can see all of last year's raffle prizes here.

And here's the really fun part: by "participating," we mean Cincinnati Locavore is offering a prize. We're not allowed to tell you what it is yet -- Menu for Hope likes to announce all the prizes at the same time on the morning of December 10th -- but we can promise this prize will make any serious cook drool.