fundraising

Today 11 March is the first anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster. On the island I live on people gathered at a beach this morning in remembrance. Our beaches were closed by the tsunami warnings last year and of course there have been a series of major earthquakes in Christchurch - we identify with the people of Japan.

I was asked to be a volunteer for a fundraising initiative, by the respected Japanese culinary author, Elizabeth Andoh. She had come up with a plan to develop a book based on Tohoku cuisine. Her publishers, Ten Speed Press,  suggested that it be an ebook. The volunteers tested Elizabeth's recipes and provided feedback on the book's content, which is rich not only with recipes but with background and with heart. Guidance for vegan versions is also given. The book, KIBO, is being sold online for under $US4,  a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Japan's recovery efforts. My final task as a volunteer is to spread the word.

So here is a link to an excerpt of KIBO for those of you interested to take a look:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81496605/Excerpt-and-Recipes-From-Kibo-by-Elizabeth-Andoh

I am to lead a tour group to Japan in April (sadly last year our tour was cancelled), the tour will last a fortnight and then I'll have a further fortnight's private stay, with friends. Since I was last in Japan I joined TFL and learned a lot more about the bakeries there. I really enjoyed Pat's (proth5) and Jeffrey Hamelman's blog reports from Paris this last week and hope to check out the bread made by the bakeries the members of the winning Japan team come from. 

Robyn

Please note I received Floyd's approval before making this post.

Last week I posted a message on TFL asking community members to test out the new fundraising software I'd developed for Mercy Corps, my employer, by making a few small donations. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. We hit our original goal of one thousand dollars, which I feared might be unreasonably high, in less than 72 hours, and several community members expressed a desire that we extend this longer. If you are game, I'm game. Let's see what we can do.

What is Mercy Corps?

Mercy Corps is an international aid agency based in Portland, Oregon. With over 3,500 employees working in more than 40 countries, we work to help people build secure, productive and just communities. We do that by expanding educational opportunities, helping build water and sanitation infrastructure, providing microfinancing to women starting small businesses and running food and nutrition programs to prevent malnutrition.

As I've mentioned, I work there, but I was a supporter and fan of the organization before I began working there. Mercy Corps works in some of the world's toughest places, including many that rarely make the headlines, and is committed to being efficient stewards of their donors' money.

If you are interested in supporting our fundraising effort, you can do so here. Your show of support would mean a great deal to me.

Update 10/25: I am moving the discussion of this from the forums to a blog thread so that folks interested in the fundraising project can still chat about it without interfering with the bread-centricity of the forums. I've also raised the goal to $2,500.