Menu for Hope V

Menu for Hope is back again.

This annual fundraising event was created by Chez Pim in 2004, and since then has been hosted and supported by foodbloggers all over the world. This year, its fifth year of running, we will be supporting the UN World Food Programme, the world's largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 organisations in more than 75 countries.

If you are a foodblogger or a business, you can donate a raffle prize by contacting your local regional host as listed below. This year, Ed from Tomato will be taking over the reins for the Asia Pacific area. Pim has a few guidelines and suggestions:

"Participate in Menu for Hope V by hosting a raffle prize or by promoting Menu for Hope on your blog. The prize you offer need not be of high monetary value, but it should appeal to your readership. A small rule of thumb we'd like to suggest is that each prize offered should have the potential to raise at least $200. That means, don't offer a prize unless you are pretty sure you could get at least twenty of your readers to donate $10 for a raffle ticket toward that prize.

Please do not solicit prizes from restaurants or producers whom you do not know. A big part of our success in prior years came from the personal connections between bloggers, food producers/restaurateurs/authors, and the readers who donate to the campaign. Basically, if they know your name, it's ok. If you pick up the phone and introduce yourself and the person at the other end of the line goes "huh?", you shouldn't be asking them.

Each blogger is also responsible for shipping their prize to the winning donor. Make sure you have enough in your budget to cover shipping. It's important that you specify where your shipping area will cover when you offer the prize. Frankly, we prefer that you don't restrict shipping area, but if you must, then please be very clear in your blog post so as not to confuse our donors."

The local hosts for this year's Menu for Hope are:

Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand
Ed Charles of Tomato (edcharles@mac.com)

Europe and the UK
Sara of Ms.Adventures in Italy (sara.rosso@gmail.com)

US: West Coast
Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites (matt.armendariz@gmail.com)

US: East Coast
Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen (jaden@steamykitchen.com)

Canada
Meena Agarwal of Hooked on Heat (meena@hookedonheat.com)

Wine Blog Host
Alder of Vinography (alder@vinography.com)

If you'd like to donate a prize, please send your prize information (plus two images 75x75 thumbnail and 200x200px) to your local host so that they can give you a prize code (important!) and more instructions on what to do for Monday.

Head over to Chez Pim on Monday 15 December for a list of all the prizes available.