Bake Sale for Japan On April 2nd

I stumbled across this because of Bake It Pretty and partly because of my sister-in-law.  Here's the original blog post if you'd like to get involved and it's nation-wide!   All money will be donated to Peace Winds Japan, also the partner in Japan of Mercy Corps.

Where: Oakland--Pizzaiolo (5008 Telegraph Ave.)

                  Berkeley--Gioia Pizzeria (1586 Hopkins St.)

                  San Francisco (Mission)--Bi-Rite Market (3639 18th St.)

                  San Francisco (Fillmore)--SPQR (1911 Fillmore St.)

                  San Jose--Roy's Station (197 Jackson St.)

                  Marin--coming soon

                  Peninsula--coming soon

                  Napa/Sonoma--coming soon (email NapaBakesale@gmail.com)

                  Santa Cruz--Lulu's at the Octagon (at the Museum of Art and History--118 Cooper St.; email SantaCruzBakesale@gmail.com)

                  Los Angeles--Black Cat Bakery (519 S. Fairfax Ave.; email LosAngelesBakesale@gmail.com)

                  Portland, OR--coming soon

                  Boston, MA--coming soon (email BosBakesale@gmail.com)

                  Philadelphia, PA--South Street Philly Bagel (613 S. 3rd St.)

                  Seattle, WA--CakeSpy Shop (415 E. Pine St.)

                  NYC--coming soon (email NYCbakesale@gmail.com)

                  Austin, TX--AustinBakes

                  Salt Lake City, UT--coming soon

                  Maui, HI--coming soon

                  Sacramento, CA--coming soon

Sister bakesales: Akron Vegan Bakesale for Japan (Akron, OH) 

                                         Toronto Bakes for Japan (Toronto, ON) 

When: Saturday, April 2nd from 10am-2pm  

Who:  Professional and amateur bakers, cooks, artists, artisans, and musicians coming together around food to make something BIG happen.

How: Want to help?  We'll need bakers, artists, volunteers, and lots and lots of customers.  Please send offers of help to bakesaleforjapan@gmail.com

Why: So we can donate BIG BUCKS to Peace Winds Japan and help our brothers and sisters over there in the best way we can.  Stay tuned for details.

We will be folding 1,000 paper cranes to send to friends in Japan.  Do you have origami paper to donate?  Can you teach others how to fold cranes on the day of the sale?  If so, send me an email.

Our long list of accomplished collaborators includes folks from: 

• Pizzaiolo
• BiRite Market & Creamery
• Gioia Pizzeria
• A16 & SPQR
• Chez Panisse
• Peko-Peko
• ClaireSquares
• Tartine Bakery
• Summer Kitchen Bakeshop
• Starter Bakery
• Bakers Dozen
• Viola 
• Blossom Bluff Orchards
• Tell Tale Preserve Company

...and so many more that I haven't had time to list.  I will keep adding to this list later in the week!

Last year, we raised $23,000 at our Bakesale for Haiti.  Can we double, triple, or quadruple that number this time?

If you'd like to offer a corporate sponsorship, match, or involve your organization, please email me atbakesaleforjapan@gmail.com.

Don't live in the Bay Area?  Host your own Bakesale for Japan on April 2nd!  Let's band together and take this thing national.  Email me and I will get you set up.  

Day 4: Together

Since this is tax season, my husband isn't home often.  But Fridays, he's allowed to leave around the same time I do (which makes me happy!).  My husband was a good sport and said that he'd do my rice day with me (though he's now eating a Crumbs cupcake) so I decided to make little rice hearts for my picture today since we're doing this together.  The seasoning that I put on top of the hearts is nanami togarashi, a chili pepper seasoning that I get in Japanese restaurants.

Like these little hearts, my heart goes out to Japan and the Japanese people.  I visited Japan when I was 16, with the idea that I may be moving there.  It was my first trip out of the country and we have some amazing stories from there.  I remember a woman asking if I was my brother's MOTHER (I was sixteen at the time and my brother was six) when we were in the subway.  When my mother said that not only was Max her son, but I was also her child she said, "Oh no, you are so young!"  And when my brother, sister and I went spinning around and around a revolving door (yeah, we REALLY didn't travel until we were older and were very amused by the little things) a man walked by, covering his face as he laughed at us, trying not to embarrass my parents.

Please pray for this special and unique land and it's people.  If you feel that God has called you to donate, there are many very good and respectable places:
Mercy Corps is in contact with their Japanese partner Peace Wind Japan, which will help use your money faster.
ELCA Disaster Response will use 100% of the money donated to help the people of Japan in this time of need.

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Here's what I learned today:

Have you ever played Free Rice?  My friend actually uses it in the classroom to teach her kids both about vocabulary and world hunger.

 (From Free Rice's Website)

You can change it to languages and it's been helping me remember my French vocabulary.

Free Rice has been advertising another website called WeFeedback.

Here's how it works:
It's easy: You choose your favorite food, put it into the Feedback Calculator along with the estimated cost, and then calculate how many hungry children this would feed. The next step is to donate exactly that amount. Or, if you want, you donate multiples of that amount. In this way you feedback more portions of your favorite food. (From WeFeedback's website)

So I thought I'd check out the calculator with one of my favorite foods - sushi:

Their calculator has sushi as a suggestion, so I clicked on that.  For me, it's easy to get $30 in sushi for just me!

Here's what the calculator told me:

(From WeFeedback's Website)

Whoa!  My $30 could feed 120 children.  120 CHILDREN!!  It really puts things back in perspective.

Makes me re-think the designer milk I was thinking about getting this weekend.