Showing posts with label month of rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label month of rice. Show all posts

Thursday, April 7, 2011

My Rice Month: What I've Learned



It's kind of hard to think that I finished with my 30 days.  I wasn't always perfect with it and, of course, I thought of all these really cool ways that I could have done my rice (Blue rice?!  That would have been cool, right?) 

But here's what I've learned from this:

1) Plain rice kind of sucks.  There were days where I looked at my bowl of rice and pined for something else.  That the thought of eating more plain rice made me sad and I couldn't imagine eating another bowl of it.  What about all the people in the world who have no other options?

2) My concentration was almost nil for anything after just eating a bowl of rice.  My headaches were almost immediate if I tried to do anything.  How are children, who may have only a bowl of rice to eat, going to be able to accomplish anything?

3) I was hungry almost immediately after eating a bowl of rice.  No turn around.  For men and women who may have spent hours walking for water or who have spent their days toiling outdoors or children who have walked miles to and from school must feel this far more sharply then I do.

4) The food waste in America could change the lives of the hungry all over the world.  Sure, we can't really send cooked food overseas, but we could be using that food to feed some of the 30 to 50 million Americans who are hungry today.  Organizations like Rock and Wrap It Up! and City Harvest are helping to change the way we see food waste.
5) We must stand up for the destitute, the poor and the forgotten.  God has constantly and continually called us to love the poor and to help the hungry.  We must "let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5:24)"  Places like Bread for the World and ELCA World Hunger are trying to change the way we deal with hunger, whether it be lobbying our government on behalf of those who need justice or dealing with the problem directly.

If you would like more information about different organizations that I've found through my rice month, I'll list them for you below and what they do (all information comes from their websites):
ELCA World Hunger: ELCA World Hunger is a comprehensive and sustainable program that uses multiple strategies—relief, development, education, and advocacy—to address the root causes of hunger and poverty.

Bread For The World: Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.
Kauzbots: Kauzbots robot toys are the perfect gift for anyone on your list who wants a cuddly gift or a thoughtful gift that supports causes in a unique way.

Feeding America: Feeding America food bank members help provide low - income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors.

Feed The Children: Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters.

Rock And Wrap It Up!: Rock and Wrap It Up! is an anti-poverty think tank. Using greening tactics, we recover food and other assets to agencies fighting poverty, increasing their operating budgets.



Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Day 29: O-H-I-Rice


If I asked you what this shape was, could you guess? 



What if I showed you this next?

My sister-in-law sent me this Ohio-shaped cookie cutter a little while ago and I remember when I opened the package, I could NOT think of what it was.  My husband looked and me and pretty much just said, "SERIOUSLY?!"  Yeah.  We're both from Ohio.

Tomorrow is my 30th day...and my last.  30 days of rice dinners.  Well, 28, in the end.  It's like the February of rice dinners.  I'll have to sum it all up tomorrow.  I'll make it a good one, I swear.
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I've been really interested in Rock And Wrap It Up! since I saw a report on them yesterday.  Here's what they're all about:
The Rock and Wrap It Up! Program boxes up all prepared but untouched meals following rock concerts, sporting events and schools then delivers them to local food banks and charitable agencies. Rock and Wrap It Up! also collects and distributes toiletries and cleaning products from hotels, schools and other participating donors.
Since its inception in 1991, Rock and Wrap It Up has:
  • Donated to over 43,000 shelters and places of need
  • Collaborated with 60 sports franchises, 150 bands, and 200 schools
  • Collected more than 250 million pounds of food
  • Fed more than 500 million people
Our partnerships include 150 music bands, 60 Professional Sports Franchises including the entire National Hockey league, Colleges like Columbia, UCLA, Univ. of Florida, Hotel chains including Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton, Film and television producers NBC/Universal and HBO. We wrote and helped pass the Federal Food Donation Act which encourages all federal buildings to feed the poor and not put food into land fill.


Monday, April 4, 2011

Day ...?: Lazy, Lazy Rice

Ugh!  I don't know if lazy is right, but so SO busy.  I've only skipped one other rice day, but I've been pretty regular.  But half of my pictures are on one camera and half are on another and I've been baking and...those are all my excuses.  I couldn't even be bothered to figure out how many days I've been doing this.  But I'll let you in to what I've been up to this past week/weekend:

Bakesale For Japan in NYC!  They raised over $4,300 in New York and, the tally isn't in yet, but they think it's over $100,000 nationally!

 At church, testing the camera.

Watoto Children's Choir visited us from Uganda.

They were really good.  I helped cook for them.  Took me almost all of Saturday.


This is my tired rice...right before I realized that Vindaloo had projectile vomited across the couch.
My Easter bonnet cookies!  I made fondant decorations for them.  I'm going to make them for our Easter bakesale.


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Here's what I'm watching today!

 Rock and Wrap It Up

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 24: No Rice Day

I have a confession.  I did NOT eat rice yesterday.  But I had a good reason.

In 2008, I passed out on the subway.  It totally sucked.  I ended up going to the hospital because I didn't know what was going on (my vision had gone white and it had never happened to me before and I was alone).  I've gone to a couple different doctors.  Blah blah blah (this part is boring), but I eventually got to a new cardiologist who ordered a tilt table test.

What is a tilt table test, you may ask?  Well...it's kind of like it sounds.  I got hooked up to an EKG or whatever and they monitored my blood pressure for awhile while I watched Judge Mathis.  Then they take you to a room, strap you to a table and then put that table at a 75 degrees angle and pretty much stare at you for 20 minutes.  The goal is to get you to pass out.

Oh yes.  And, if I didn't pass out the first time, I would have had to do it again with a pill that would help me pass out.  The goal is to see what's causing me to pass out.

The room was cold and they wrapped me up in warm blankets, which was great at first, but I get overheated really quickly.  I didn't fully pass out, but I came as close to it as I've been since 2008.  And it was 10x worse then what I did before!  Plus, I had to fast all day (my test was at 3:15pm by the time they figured it all out) so that didn't help.

By the time I got out of the hospital, I went back to work (boo!!) and wasn't feeling that great and I ended up getting Chipotle for dinner.

Long story short, I'm justifying why I didn't eat my rice.  I should have!  Forgive me.  And I'll be back on track tonight.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 21: Cheating Rice


Yeah, I did it.  I TOTALLY did it.  I ate my rice dinner, but afterwards, I sat with my husband and we ate some ice cream together.  I don't see my husband often this time of year and it seemed like a good idea.  It was a really GOOD idea.  I hope that you'll forgive my indiscretion.

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I think a lot of people know World Vision.  Here's something about me: I love gift catalogs.  Not like Sears, but I love catalogs where you can buy a lamb or buy an education.  Save the Children has it.  Mercy Corps has it.  And World Vision has it to.

The image for the Horn of Africa food crisis, under the Hunger subject on their catalog really caught my attention.


Here's the video of World Vision's workers discussing the Horn of Africa food crisis:


Here's what the website says:
A severe drought and food crisis is threatening the lives of more than 7 million people — especially young children — in the Horn of Africa. Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia are the worst affected. World Vision is responding, and any donation you give today will multiply 6 times to provide emergency food and health care, and meet other urgent needs for children and families in the Horn of Africa.


6 times?!  If you donate $10, you're giving $60 worth of food.  I think that's amazing and it's very much needed.

If you would like to donate to help the Horn of Africa food crisis, please feel free to click HERE.

You can also give gifts where most needed and you can get some pretty cool stuff in the process.  Here's what I'd like to do/get/give:
The Poverty & Justice Bible.  It highlights over 2,000 verses in the Bible that are about poverty and justice.  And here's what the website says:
With more than 2,000 verses on poverty and justice highlighted, this Bible enables its reader to more deeply understand God's heart toward the poor and marginalized.
If you would like to donate to where it's needed most and possibly get The Poverty & Justice Bible or something else like that, please click HERE.



Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 20: Creepy Rice

I couldn't figure out the camera this morning and this is what I ended up with.  My husband was playing with the camera and I didn't realize it.

I'm gonna be honest.  I think about just eating rice and get a little bit sad.  And I have had much, MUCH less energy because of it.  Just because a kid has far more energy then I do doesn't mean that a kid doesn't need more than a bowl of rice.

I've also been having a hard time fighting off a cold I have.  I've been noticing cravings too.  Intense cravings.  I was told once that when you have cravings, it normally means your body needs something.  And I'm not talking like, chocolate cravings.  I'm talking cravings of meat and seafood and things like that.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Dreaming of Rice

Aspire not to have more but to be more.
~Bishop Oscar Romero


I promise that I'm still eating my rice dinners.  But last night...was the first time...that I forgot to take a picture.  Well, I shouldn't say forgot.  I should say that I was feeling slightly neurotic about my cake and just shoveled the food into my mouth.  Not my shining hour.

I will admit, that I was trying to trust God last night, as my husband pulled out of the parking lot to take the cake to our church.  I had to just let it go and I said, "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend this cake."   Made it there safely and in one piece :)

I don't think I'll have a rice picture tonight either.  I forgot that we're going to see Anything Goes.  I just want to go home and crawl in bed!  It'll be good though.  I was in the musical when I was in high school and it'll be good to see it.

Last thing!
Anyone here live in NYC?  Or Brooklyn?  Or just want to visit the Brooklyn Flea?

I'm going to be contributing some Easter Bonnet shortbreads.  I'm so excited!  If you would like to donate to the effort in Japan, but can't buy a baked good, feel free to donate HERE.  100% of the funds will go to Peace Winds Japan, who is also the partner for Mercy Corps.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Day 15: Kitteh Rice


This is our cat Vindaloo.  She decided to help me with my rice picture.

As soon as I ate my rice today, I was hungry again.  Vindaloo did not care for my rice.  Though when Steve was eating his cheese and crackers, she was ALL over that.

I'm sorry this is quick.  I was making fondant tonight and I'm a bit tired.  I hope you're having a great evening!

Oh and please check out the post right below this one :)
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Okay, I'm feeling a little bit better...like I'm getting back on the ball.

Since I've been doing so many bake sales and such (and staring at my sugar sacks), I found out about the Great American Bake Sale.


The Great American Bake Sale happens around the country and normally happens between March and October.  The money you raise goes to Share Our Strength (you may remember them from the Kauzbots post!)

If you would like more information on how to host a bake sale, please visit HERE.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 14: Dirty Rice

Very dirty.  I'm baking cake right now and those are most of my dirty dishes.  MOST.  Amazing, right?

Sorry about this weekend.  I've been feeling a little gross lately.  I'm feeling a bit better today, but I'm also a bit down.  This is about the time of tax season where I start to get really tired of it.  I know that we can plow through it and it will be okay.

Here are my pictures from this weekend:



How are you guys doing?

Rice Weekend

I promise you that I did eat my rice this weekend and did take pictures, but there was some craziness and I haven't had a chance to post them.  I'll try and post them tonight while I make some cake.  :)

But I have a question for you.  What would you do in these situations? 

1) You're in the subway.  There's a man sliding along the floor in front of a small convenience stand.  He appears to grab something, but you can't see what.  The man appears to be homeless.

OR

2) You are waiting to cross the street when you actually see a bicyclist hit a young woman.  They both fall over.  He picks up his bike and keeps going, pretending that it didn't happen.  People start yelling at him, grab his bike and refuse to let him go until he goes to apologize to the girl since he didn't even help her up.  He yells at the people holding him, telling them that they're hurting him and that he's going to be late to work.  He finally goes back, but barely says anything to the girl he hit who has a split lip and scraped hands.  Then, the mob mentality that has already taken over continues and people start yelling obscenities at him and tell him that they hop he gets hit by a car and dies.

On a lighter note: I'm hoping to be baking for the Bakesale for Japan that will be taking place across the country!

I'm hoping to make something like this:
 (Credit: Bakerella)
Shortbread Easter bonnets!!  That's my hope.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Day 11: Leftover Rice


I've really been slacking in the creativity department.  Please have mercy on me.  I'm taking a turn for the worse today.

So here's what I'm going to talk about today:

One of my Lenten studies is a calendar from ELCA World Hunger and it's 40 days of thinking, praying and doing.  I really like it.  Today was a "tell" day.

ELCA Global Barnyard is like Heifer International in that a certain donation can buy a certain farm animal to help a family in need.  $10 buys 10 chicks that will help a family survive.

So the question today was:

What can you buy with $10?

I was thinking about it and I found a few thing online too.

I can buy a bottle of wine for $10.


Raspberries at my grocery store, at the moment are $3.99 a pint.  I could buy 2 pints and have a few cents left over.


I love mangoes.  Mangoes are 99 cents at our grocery store right now.  I could buy 9 mangoes and still have money left over.
I could even buy a pair of shoes!  And in this case, I could buy TWO pairs!
But then here's what else I could buy with $10.

$10 could feed 40 children.
$10 could ship quilts or health kits to a family of five who lost everything in an earthquake or flood.
$10 could provide a small grove of trees to protect the soil from erosion in Zambia.
$10 could provide enough maize, bean, and groundnut seeds for a Mozambiquan family to replant after floods.

I really enjoyed the reading for today too - 2 Corinthians 9:6-15:
Generosity Encouraged
 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:    “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
   their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

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I got an e-mail in my inbox today that said:

Dine at Thalassa & Fight Hunger

10% of your bill will be donated to the NYC Food Bank!

Anyone here live in or around NYC?  If so, here's where it is:  179 Franklin Street in Tribeca
And then here's the website: http://www.thalassanyc.com/

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Day 10: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!   My picture looks cute, right?  Well, I need to come clean with you guys.  So that's cilantro that is sprinkled on the clover and I went to eat it and almost threw up.  It tasted like dirt.  I tried to mix in some dressing and gagged again.  I threw it out.  I couldn't do it.  So my husband and I went out and bought some Minute rice in the hopes that I can keep that down.  I mixed most of the pre-made rice I had with some chicken and broccoli and figured that I can eat that for lunch.

What if I did have to eat it, even if it tasted like dirt?  What if it WAS dirt that was mixed in there?  Just a few of the questions that have been in my head today.

Have you ever heard of Homeboy Industries?  I loved the book Tattoos on the Heart and got a chance to eat at tacos at their Homegirl Cafe.  They share a thought of the day daily (duh) and I liked the one for today.  So here you go:
Thought of the Day, from Mary Ellen Burton: Tipping her hat to the Irish legend of St. Patrick, even though there aren't a lot of Irish here Homeboy Industries! She asked us to think about the contradiction in St. Patrick's analogy of the shamrock; every person is incredibly unique, and yet there is a universal togetherness. We are all our very singular leaves, yet we belong together as one shamrock.


She also shared a quote by her friend, Sister Peg Dolan: "Each person alive is a word spoken by God only once." This, Mary Ellen said, is true, we are all a stamp of our own upon the earth, but inside of each of us is the same tangle of beauty and fear and wonderful things, and we would do well to remember that as much as we are unique, we are all made of the same stuff.

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I know I said no more about food waste, but I thought this was awesome.  I'm part of the Lutheran church and have been doing a Lenten study entitled "God's Math Doesn't Just Add Up, It Multiplies."  It often has me looking at the ELCA World Hunger organization and what they're doing in the U.S. and around the world.  Here's a story from their website in the Domestic Hunger Grants Section:

Senior Gleaners of San Diego County
Gleaners Relief
ESCONDIDO, CA


Ann Evans (left) and Denyse Haney, volunteers at Senior Gleaners“I put in a lot of heavy hours, so some days I can hardly walk,” says Ann Evans (pictured left, wearing a hat), a retired Associate in Ministry who volunteers at Senior Gleaners of San Diego County. “But I forget about my pain when I see the excitement of the volunteers and the people [we] help.”
Senior Gleaners of San Diego County was organized in 1992 to tap into the skills of senior volunteers (age 55 and over) in gleaning excess food that would otherwise be destroyed—food found in area fields, grocery stores, and packing sheds. The collected food is then distributed to 45 food-giving agencies in San Diego County, which in turn make the food and fresh produce available to people living in poverty.
Ann, a member of Ascension Lutheran Church in San Diego, is a volunteer coordinator for the South County portion of Senior Gleaners. She supervises 55 volunteers on a daily basis and has been involved in the program since its beginning. Most Gleaners work once a week for about four hours, but Ann is the exception, usually putting in a seven-day week despite arthritis. “My doctor says I should quit,” Ann confesses, “but God lets me do it!”
In 2006, more than 5,500 clients (from babies to senior citizens) were served by Senior Gleaners. The 65 senior volunteers worked for 10,000 hours to collect and distribute nearly 500,000 pounds of food.
ELCA World Hunger—through the domestic hunger grants program—recently awarded a grant to Senior Gleaners to fight hunger in the United States. The domestic hunger grants program is one primary way your gifts impact people who are hungry in the United States.
—Material for this story was contributed by M. Laurel Gray,
President of Senior Gleaners of San Diego County



If you would like to read the story on the website, you can just click HERE.
If you would like to donate to the ELCA to help fight hunger in the US and around the world, please feel free to visit HERE.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Day 8: Sick Rice

I think my rice and I are feeling about the same.  I've spent most of my day on the couch drinking orange juice (my husband is always quick to point out the ounces and time...so YES, I have drank 89 fluid ounces of orange juice in less than 24 hours) and watching the Investigation Discovery channel.  I'm a true crime nut.  Once the crappy shows come on, I turn on either the Food Network or Spongebob Squarepants.

Best story about my love of Spongebob: I was at our Common Ground church service (which is normally a younger crowd on Thursday nights) and I was talking with someone who works as a nanny and we were discussing Spongebob.  A girl was standing there and she said, "I didn't know you had kids!"  I said, "I don't...I just really like Spongebob."  The look on her face was priceless.

But that's all I got today.  Hopefully I can be more pithy and intelligent tomorrow.
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Here's what I've got today.  How food waste hurts your wallet and the environment (because we need EVERY reason it's bad and we already know that it's effects others):

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 7: Garlic Mouth

Hey.  What you lookin' at?!

I was feeling uncreative when I got home and gave my rice some Lawry's hair and eyes and a garlic powder mouth.  Ugh.  Not smart.  Because now I have a garlic mouth too.  

My stomach is definitely smaller and as I type this, I can feel that pitty feeling in my stomach.  I couldn't imagine being a small child and not knowing when my next meal would be.

I was telling my sister-in-law about when I would go to my grandmother's when I was younger and, if I didn't eat all the food on my plate, she would say, "You need to finish your food.  There are starving children in Ethiopia/Africa/The World."  It is a very true statement, but it made me feel guilty.  When I throw out food, I feel that guilt all over again.

Now, I should feel something when I throw out food that is edible or even food that I know that I've let go bad.  I should feel something.  But I think there has to be a better way to teach children and adults to care for those who are hungry without making them feel guilt for the blessings in their lives.  

How do you teach your children about these things?

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I think that I'm a visual learner.  It's easier for me to remember things once I've done them or after repeating it over and over and over.  I used to learn speeches by writing them down, sentence by sentence, until I remembered them.

Yesterday, I found information on food waste, but I was hoping that I could get a picture or something like that.  While I couldn't find a pile or a visual image that would really drive the point home, I did find an article that was in the New York Times in 2008 entitled "One Country's Table Scraps, Another Country's Meal" that had an image.

The article is very good, pointing out that a quarter of the crops in Africa go bad before they can be eaten because of a lack of technology and infrastructure as well as humidity and bugs.

Also, one of the best quotes from the article, by Andrew Martin:
"Of course, eliminating food waste won’t solve the problems of world hunger and greenhouse-gas pollution. But it could make a dent in this country and wouldn’t require a huge amount of effort or money. The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people."

You can view the article HERE.



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Day 6: Shhh!

Be quiet, rice!  He's sleeping!

For being the day of rest, I will be getting none of it. (Which explains why we're having breakfast rice today)  Which, normally, would be somewhat all right.  But since my immune system is a bit weak at the moment, I'm feeling like I'm dragging.  Could it be from the rice diet, not getting enough vitamins?  Or a lack of sleep?  I'm not sure, but I can say that I'm already hungry and I JUST finished my bowl less than 3 minutes ago.

REST today, if you can!  :)
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I've been feeling guilty lately.  I have realized how much food I've thrown out and I've tried to stop.  But as I throw away the half-eaten salad I got yesterday, even though I know that I don't eat salads, I have to stop and think.  How much food does America waste?  Here are some statistics:

-According to America’s Second Harvest, over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year.
-According to a 2004 study from the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, on average, American households waste 14 percent of their food purchases.
Fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology who led the study, estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.


Nationwide, Jones says, household food waste alone adds up to $43 billion, making it a serious economic problem.


- Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds - including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products - are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Day 5: Day Rice

Lady Liberty loves her rice.


She is pretty far out there, but that's her.

When I first thought about doing a month of rice, I thought that I could do it every night and nothing would come up and mess with my schedule.  Obviously, I am an idealist, because that is just not realistic.  My Sundays are going to be really crazy because I'm going to be out of my apartment from 8:00am to 9:00pm, so rice will be interesting and possibly on-the-go.  But I'm still going to do it!

I will say, that after my rice meals, I am almost immediately hungry again.  Last night, after eating my rice, I started to bake a three-layer cake.  Just baking the cake gave me a headache and, as the night progressed, my head ache just got worse and worse.  I don't know how children could ever learn anything after eating only rice...especially since many children in the world eat the rice the night before and then wake up without anything to eat.

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My friend Laurie works for a toy magazine and she pointed me in the direction of Karito Kids dolls.  They are 6 dolls that represent 6 different world cultures.  When you purchase the doll, the doll comes with an activation code that your daughter (they are marketed towards girls) can use to log-on, read about the charities and then choose which charity you'd like to support.

 (Credit: Karito Kids)

They have a charity that supports 13 rural and very poor schools in China by purchasing them goats, pigs, chickens and other farm animals to help them have healthy food during school.

Friday, March 11, 2011

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.


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:

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.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 3: Like A Child



"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."- Matthew 18:3

Maybe I'm just taking it too literally.  And yes, I DO make the noises when I use my constructive tools utensils.  I was really excited about these and my husband bought them for me as a surprise.  I got them with the thought that someday, maybe, we'll have kids...and that I'd just use them until that happened.  Yeah, I just thought they were cool.

I was a bit of a cheater today.  My husband brought him some Chipotle chips.  We were walking through a rain storm and he gave me the chips saying they'd be soggy.  Thinking, okay, well, I don't want to waste them...so I ate three or four of them and decided I could eat them for lunch tomorrow.  Forgive me!

I will admit - I'm still hungry.  Even 10 minutes after a bowl of rice, I'm hungry again.  I couldn't imagine being a child and only eating a bowl of rice for dinner.  How do they concentrate for the rest of the evening?  And I even CHEATED tonight.

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In keeping with the child-like theme today, here's something I learned about today.  My sister-in-law knows my heart and she sent me a link to the cutest little robot plushies called Kauzbots.  Each robot is a different color and it stands for different things from helping refugees to autism to homelessness and to hunger.

Since I'm learning about hunger, I thought I'd introduce you to Karissa the Kauzbot.
(From Kauzbots)

Kauzbots even have their own little biographies.  Here's the beginning of Karissa's:
Karissa's heart is full of happiness when she fights world hunger and poverty. Karissa knows that hunger and poverty are big problems and social issues that have only gotten worse recently. In America alone 14.3% of people live in poverty and 14.6% live in homes where the food supply is unstable. Around the world, the number of people hungry has surpassed a staggering 1 billion in 2009 (FAO of United Nations).

10% of each Kauzbot goes to the cause that your robot supports.  For Karissa, the 10% goes to Share Our Strength, a group that helps feed hungry children in the U.S. and around the world.

I really love the idea of Kauzbots.  It kind of makes me think of TOMS shoes in that it allows you to be a conscious consumer, to provide for others while you buy things for yourself.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 2: Ash Wednesday

...for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." - Genesis 3:19

I was at first hesitant to add a cross to my rice for today (Lawry's salt, if you were wondering), but I have one on my forehead, I can have one on my rice.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of a journey for me, every year.  Most years I give up things.  I guess I have this year, but I feel like I'm gaining more.  And I feel like this rice month is a journey for me.  I'm learning so much about hunger and poverty.

I think I'm going to share with you both my rice and what I'm learning.  Let's all learn together!  I will say: Lawry's seasoning salt is a great addition to my rice.

Here's what I learned today:
On March 6th, 60 Minutes profiled child poverty in Florida.  In one of the segments, a small group of children in Florida talk about how they often go to bed hungry and how they feel that it's their fault, that their families would be better off if they didn't have to pay for them.

These are the faces of the statistics from yesterday.

Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids
For some children, socializing and learning are being cruelly complicated by homelessness, as Scott Pelley reports from Florida, where school buses now stop at motels for children who've lost their homes.


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Day 1: In The Beginning...


(Side note: That's an appropriate title, especially since that was my Lenten reading for today.)

So I'm starting NOW!  According to Oxfam, 50% of the world eats only rice or another staple food for dinner, so I've decided that for 30 days (though it may be part of my Lenten journey now too) that I'll eat only rice for one meal a day and donate the money that I would have spent on groceries to these children that we met in Ethiopia.  The school that they go to is run solely on charity (since a free education isn't available in Ethiopia or many other countries) and the only meals that they receive during the day are at the school.

Here are some hunger facts from Bread For The World and Feeding America:

- In 2008, nearly 9 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. One third of these deaths are due directly or indirectly to hunger and malnutrition. Malnutrition is not having enough nourishing food, with adequate amounts of protein, vitamins, minerals and calories to support physical and mental growth and development. Children who survive early childhood malnutrition suffer irreversible harm—including poor physical growth, compromised immune function, and impaired cognitive ability.


Despite years of progress against hunger, in 2010, it is estimated that 925 million people suffer from hunger. This is due to a sudden spike in global food prices and the onset of a world-wide economic crisis. United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation


- 20% or more of the child population in 16 states and D.C. are living in food insecure households.  The states of Arkansas (24.4 percent) and Texas (24.3 percent) have the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food. (Cook, John, Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2006-2008.