December is full of sweets to bake, gifts to buy and too many worthwhile causes to support. Here’s one more I hope you’ll consider, a chance to join with all your favorite food bloggers to support the World Food Programme and have a chance to win some wonderful foodie gifts for yourself. The Menu for Hope fundraiser was launched by Pim of Chez Pim five years ago, and raised nearly $100,000 last year for the school lunch and farming program for children in Lesotho. Just $10 gets you one raffle entry for the prize of your choosing, and you can enter as many times as you like!

Here’s what we’re donating:

Hand-crafted Marshmallows and Barefoot Contessa autographed cookbook (Prize # UE20)
An autographed copy of the Barefoot Contessa’s newest book,
Back to Basics, and a dozen hand-crafted marshmallows (flavor to be determined) from the Dairy Godmother in Alexandria, Virginia.
(Continental US only) Donated by FoodieTots.com.

Hop on over to Steamy Kitchen, the East Coast host, to review more prizes, and then go to the FirstGiving donation page to contribute.

Donation Instructions:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://chezpim.com
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you 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. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

See the FAQs for more details. Thanks for your support!

I’ve written before about the work Share Our Strength does to combat childhood hunger. I am on the volunteer committee for the DC Taste of the Nation 2009 fundraising event, which will be held March 30, and feature the best of Washington’s chefs and bartenders. For those of you in the Washington area, I wanted to announce that tickets have gone on sale today, with a special discount on tickets purchased before the end of the year. Buy now to save $10 off a general admission ticket or $25 off VIP tickets. All ticket proceeds go directly to local grant programs.

You can also invite your friends via the Facebook page or follow @TOTNationDC on Twitter for updates as the event approaches.

Outside of DC? Check for an event in your town, and follow @ShareStrength for other hunger news.

Today I am forgoing my usual morning routine to focus on a topic that is too closely tied to child health and nutrition, poverty. It can be overwhelming to think about the number of children going hungry today, in our own community and around the world. But there are also many organizations and great leaders working to combat the problem, and small steps you can take to help make a difference in just a few minutes. Here’s my own “Power of 8″ formula:

• Average trip into coffee shop for morning latte and pumpkin muffin: 8 minutes
• Average cost of latte and pastry: $8
• 86.1 million people in 80 countries rely on World Food Program assistance

In the spirit of “eating locally, acting globally,” I am contributing today to both a domestic and an international cause. Locally, I am supporting Share our Strength, a national organization supporting community programs to end child hunger, where $8 will provide a child three meals a day for a week. Globally, $8 will buy 32 school meals through the Friends of the World Food Program. Blog Action Day’s purpose is not just to spend a day highlighting the issue of poverty, but to “change the conversation” and create action. I will be revisiting my contributions on the 8th of each month, setting aside my coffee change to change the world. Oh, and for the rest of my 8 minutes, after donating to those two sites, I’ll be playing Free Rice.

Are you participating in Blog Action Day? Share your link below!

Blog Action Day 2007 post: Eat Organic. Save the Earth.