When we first came up with the concept of The Traveling Cookbook – Kristin and I were only looking for an interesting way to build a conversation. We were looking for a way of engaging with our readers and other bloggers in a way that shared experiences, friendship and stories. We know that coming together at the table is often where a good conversation takes place.
We chose to start with Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks – for a few reasons. First of all both of us had met her in real life. A real life connection is important to us. If we were going to use anyone’s cookbook, well, why not someone we’ve met? The popularity of Ree’s cookbook is helpful, because it is a cookbook that many all ready know about and are interested in. As we thought through the plan for the cookbook’s journey we realized that in the end, this cookbook would be scrap-booked into it’s own unique work of art – holding treasured tales, recipe hints and changes and memories from all sorts of table. This would be a treasure too wonderful to keep for ourselves. It was then we decided to turn The Traveling Cookbook into something more. It would be an opportunity to raise money for a charity we knew of called, Feed My Starving Children by auctioning off the re-created cookbook.
After contacting Feed My Starving Children in search of a donation link, a conversation started. That conversation became an invitation to do a little more. We decided to take on the challenge to raise $24,000 for a Feed My Starving Children MobilePackTM unit. This MobilePackTM unit brings everything needed to create a volunteer packing event anywhere in the US. (Ey yi yi! We pinched ourselves – – were we crazy? Where will we find the money, the site, the 500 volunteers needed to pack this semi truck? And, where will we find a FORKLIFT??) Well ~ these questions didn’t deter us! We decided the adventure was definitely worth the cause. As mother’s of 9 children total, how could we not! So, to begin with I took a field trip to a Feed My Starving Children packing site learn more.
Feed My Starving Children sends food to starving children all over the world. They reach to the poorest and most dangerous parts of our world to get food to those that need it most, starving children. Each one of these Manna Packs contains 6 cups of specially formulated rice. Just 1 cup of this rice can sustain a child for a day and is created to be easily digested by a starving malnourished child.
The rice contains dehydrated vegetables, soy protein and flavors that were formulated by scientists from General Mills and Cargil especially for Feed My Starving Children. The food is vegetarian and contains rice which is a universal staple.
I had a sample and was surprised to find it tasty.
It would be tastier than a dirt biscuit that many mothers make to satisfy their hungry childrens’ bellies.
Getting these MannaPacks out to children can make a difference.
It’s hard to look at such a sweet baby in such dire condition. But, look at the results after receiving healthy meals from Feed My Starving Children.
Here’s a view of the shipping board in the Feed My Starving Children warehouse that I visited. The MannaPacks are going to Kenya, Haiti, Somalia, Nicaragua and other places of need.
All the meals are packed by volunteers at warehouse sites or via a MobilePack unit like the one being sponsored by us here at LoveFeast Table.
The meals created by volunteers will then be shipped to the parts of the world that need it most. 
We definitely took on a challenge bigger than ourselves or the size of this blog when we agreed to set our goal on $24,000 for a LoveFeast MobilePackTM unit. We are hoping that you, our readers and friends will help us in getting the word out. We would like to invite you to email your friends, share a badge on your blog or spread the word in any way you can think of to help us reach our goal. It’s going to take a whole bunch of us to come together at the table to make this a possibility.
What an amazing journey for us all to be on – let’s see if we can do it!! A big goal like this is a little scary but a little thrilling too, right? We hope you join us on this exciting journey to see if we can provide this LoveFeast MobilePackTM to make a difference in our world!
Following The Traveling Cookbook journey – here!
Grab a badge – here!
Donate to the LoveFeast Table MobilePack – here!
