"share our strength" news and stories

Spring has arrived! With it, come scads of crawfish festivals along the Gulf Coast, beer and wine festivals nationwide and the heralding of spring harvests. April is so chock-full of culinary merrymaking we can only wish you luck getting through the month without lapsing into a life-threatening -- though joyous -- food coma.

Breckenridge Beer Festival, April 3, Breckenridge, Colo.: American craft beer continues to attract followers and chip away at commercial leviathans. In few places is this more evident than in Colorado, one of the country's beer meccas. Unlimited tasting tickets will set you back $25, but serious beer geeks will want to shell out $55 for VIP passes, which include early entry to the festival, a commemorative glass mug, unlimited tastings, a private VIP room, lunch and a buffet. Raise a pint glass to local and national breweries, among them Oskar Blues, Great Divide and the town's own, Breckenridge Brewing Company.

Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation Boston, April 8, Boston, Mass.: What's a month without a fine-dining fete? The Share Our Strength series' event in Boston will feature more than 70 area restaurants and 40 wineries, including the Little Pearl, Rialto and Eastern Standard. All ticket sales will benefit Share Our Strength's effort to end child hunger.

As we all get ready to sit down to a belly-bulging turkey dinner this Thursday with the ones we love, it's also time to remember the holiday is about giving thanks.

But during these tough economic times, many people will get their meals this holiday season from food banks and soup kitchens. Volunteering to charitable causes in a time of abundance gives others a reason to give back.

Find out how you can help after the jump.

Barbecue ribs. Photo: biskuit, Flickr.

Oktoberfests are ubiquitous this month. For those not interested in the chug-a-thons and oompah bands, check out this list of alternative options.

Dixon Lambtown USA, Dixon, Calif., Oct. 3: Break out the mint jelly! Attendees can participate in such culinary slugfests as the National Lamb Ribs Eating Contest and Barbecue Cook-Off, not to mention a shearing competition and sheepdog trials. For the kiddies, there's Mutton Bustin' -- a buckin' bronco bruising of the woolly kind.

The Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival, New York, Oct. 8-11: Hosted by and benefiting the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength, this festival brings the toque and the home cook together. Everyone from sous chefs to casserole queens can attend wine seminars, recipe-creation panels and cooking demonstrations. For the kiddie cook, check out the Kids Get Cooking! series. Your favorite celebrity TV chefs will be there, en masse, including Ming Tsai, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray and Anthony Bourdain, as well as culinary heavyweights such as Sue Torres, Marcus Samuelsson, Odette Fada, Daniel Boulud and David Chang.

Apologies to anyone dining in a marquee New York restaurant on Wednesday night -- we were hogging all your chefs and a restaurateur or 10 over at the Roseland Ballroom. And no, we won't apologize; it was all for a great cause.

Since 1988, the Share Our Strength organization has drawn together chefs, mixologists, volunteers and food fans in cities around the United States for Taste of the Nation events benefiting local food assistance organizations via funds generated by ticket sales, sponsorships and silent auctions. New York City's 2009 installment featured small-plate fare from more than 50 eateries and chefs, including newly minted James Beard Award winner Dan Barber's Blue Hill, Danny Meyer's entire armada of restaurants and the revitalized Oak Room as well as generously poured tipples from the likes of Audrey Saunders, Tony Abou-Ganim, Jim Meehan and many (many ... so, so, many ... ) more.

After the jump, read more about celeb spotting, volunteer opportunities and the best bite we had all night.

As we talk about the joys of holiday baking and plans for the annual Christmas Eve buffet, it's important to remember that in the midst of our abundance, there are many children who are going hungry each day (one out of every six, to be exact).

Food blogger Carol Blymire, of Alinea at Home (previously of French Laundry at Home), is working with Share Our Strength this year (as she has in past years) to raise funds to feed these hungry kids. Just a few dollars can make a huge difference in the life of a child. Here's what Carol has to say about the campaign this year.

I work with Share Our Strength all year long, but I wanted to do a special campaign on this blog this holiday season and I've sweetened the pot, so to speak. We've created a dedicated Alinea at Home Share Our Strength campaign, and if you click on that page and make a donation, you'll be entered to win some really cool prizes -- the wonderful team at Alinea is donating five Alinea cookbooks, and my friends at Workman/Artisan have donated two copies of Thomas Keller's new sous vide book, Under Pressure.

So if you feel moved, make a donation. You'll be doing a good deed and giving yourself a chance at winning one of two cool cookbooks.

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