Foodies fighting hunger. What’s this all about? Well, a couple weeks ago I gave a little presentation/talk to a few classes at the high school I work at about blogging. During these conversations, I had mentioned a frustration I have for food/lifestyle bloggers who advocate for healthy and/or organic living but never advocate for equal access to the resources needed to live a health/organic life (much less acknowledge the privilege it takes to live a life full of beautiful acai smoothie bowls and fresh pressed juices). And so, upon reflection, I realized I needed to walk the walk and not just talk the talk; dust off my advocacy skills, if you will. Thus, an idea was born. What if a bunch of foodies got together to acknowledge our privilege, attempt to create a recipe with only $5 in our pocket, and spread some information on hunger/poverty issues in the US while also providing ways for you, the reader, to do a little advocacy work yourself? And what if we partnered with an incredible organization like MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, which is a national nonprofit organization working to end hunger in the United States and Israel for all faiths and backgrounds in order to make sure we get all the facts and figures right? I’m hoping good things. That’s what I’m happening will happen.

Therefore, after a few nudging emails (from me) to almost every food blogger I’ve ever spoken with and/or wished I have spoken with, a mighty little band of foodie advocates was born. This band of Foodies Fighting Hunger includes the following bloggers (by blog name):

The Kosher Spoon

Foodie Crush

will frolic for food

Dessert for Two

Cooking in Heels

Let’s Eat Cake

Cake Over Steak

Hola Jalapeno

What Jew Wanna Eat

Kosher Like Me

Girl Versus Dough

Confident Cook, Hesitant Baker

The Bonjon Gourmet

A Nutritionist Eats

I am very much hoping this will be the first in a series of posts featuring an even wider-range of bloggers advocating for equal access to food and for putting an end to hunger and poverty. I am also appreciate the bloggers who jumped on board right away, even if they had never heard of me, because of their commitment to fight and advocate. I am also especially grateful to MAZON, especially Emily Dingmann, who not only the Communications Director at MAZON but is also the blogger behind A Nutritionist Eats.

A few things of note:

1. I do not live in a food desert. Within a 2 mile radius of where I live in Encino, CA, there is a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Ralph’s Grocery, a large kosher grocer called, Encino Glatt Mart, and countless other mini markets. For this post, I chose to shop at Ralph’s as it is the most prevalent grocery store in Souther Los Angeles.
2. I have a kosher home, therefore, my ingredient list ran a bit more expensive then the non-kosher versions of the same ingredients. For my family and countless families across the US, keeping kosher is not a ‘choice’ but a religious commandment/obligation.

• Hunger myths: there is a stark contrast between the widely held myths and realities about hunger and these myths/realities can shed some light on WHY there is hunger in America if you’d like to touch on that.
• This is Hunger stories: a unique view into the reality of who in America struggles with hunger and why
• Infographics: about hunger (general hunger, seniors, children, rural, SNAP, etc.)
• Interactive map: individual data on how many food insecure households are in your state

• Tell Congress to end hunger for military families now!
• Invest and Improve Child Nutrition Programs
• Educate others: Share this post and other posts involved in this advocacy campaign!
• Sign up to volunteer by yourself or with your family at various local food shelters
• Next time you host a holiday party or birthday party, ask friends to bring a canned good or other donate-able food item instead of a present (or with a present) . . . I love presents.

Underwood Family Farms

When deciding on the ingredients for this post, I decided on the cheap because, well, I only had $5 to spend and I wanted to stretch every dollar. I also had to get kosher ingredients as we keep a kosher home. I had originally wanted to include a fresh veggie in the dish but after the cost of the dairy products, I was out of money. But herbs were cheap and still green so herbs it was. I also wanted to included sauteed garlic in butter or olive oil but again, I did not have enough money for this so the only seasonings used were table salt and pepper. The following is the breakdown of the ingredients to my recipe (both kosher and non-kosher cost).

Kosher:         Non-Kosher:

                                                         Ramen      $.99              $.39

                                                           Milk        $1.79             Same

                                            Cream Cheese     $1.99             Same

                                                            Dill        $.25               Same

Parsley      $.25               Same

So my kosher total was $.5.27 and my non-kosher total is just under $5, coming in at $4.67. The two items I have yet to calculate are salt and pepper, which would set me back  even more but I picked up some free salt and pepper packets at the deli counter so, BINGO! Luckily, this recipe included ingredients that weren’t vastly different when it came to cost but that is mainly because I didn’t include any real cheese or meat products, which, of course, make every recipe much more expensive regardless of whether or not the dish is kosher or not.

The family, picking veggies for fun.